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THE WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL- 
FREEDOM 



Sears Philosophy 

as taught in 

“The Books Without an If” 

makes life livable here and hereafter 


Sears Philosophy Lessons 

Volume III 
by 

F. W. Sears, M.P. 

AUTHOR OP 


“Concentration—Its Mentology and Psychology“How to Attract 
Success”; “Sears Psychology Lessons, Vol. I and II “Sears 
Philosophy Lessons, Vol. Ill”; “How to Give Treatments”; 
“How to Conquer Fear”; “Everyday Experiences”; 

“Was Jesus God or Man?” “Sears Philosophy— 

What it Teaches; How to Study It”; “The 
Three Monkeys”; “Am I to Blame?” “The 
Unlimited Supply”; etc., etc. 


CENTRE PUBLISHING CO. 

108 & no West 34 St. 

NEW YORK 

L. N. FOWLER 

London, Eng. 

Copyright 1919, F. W. Sears, All rights reserved! 


























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CONTENTS 


The World’s Greatest Ideal— 

Freedom!. 3 

The Psychology of Healing. 47 

How to Change Environment. 77 

Power of Personality. Ill 

Selfishness—Human and Divine- 143 

Making the Next World Safe for 

Democracy. 171 























/ 


















THE WORLD’S GREATEST 
IDE AL—FREEDOM! 





Copyright 1919. F. W. Seabs, M.F. All rights reserved. 


THE WORLD’S GREATEST 
IDE AL—FREEDOM! 

by F. W. Sears, M. P. 

To learn the positive and constructive 
use and expression of Energy under the 
Law of Harmony, and rise above the 
effects of its destructive use and expres¬ 
sion under the Law of Force, is man’s 
destiny here and now. 

The world is waiting for this new mes¬ 
sage of harmony, for a larger vision and 
a deeper understanding of life, which will 
enable it to materialize its greatest ideal 
—Freedom. 

This message will be given to the world 
by America; is being given to the world 
from this platform every Sunday morn- 


4 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


ing, and daily during the week from our 
School. 

But what is Freedom? 

We have been taught by the man- 
limited consciousness of the past and 
present that there were things which were 
absolute; which were perfect in their 
finality. 

But let me tell you here and now that 
there is nothing absolute, nothing perfect 
in its finality along any line, except as to 
form, or there would be no further 
growth. 

Even the Infinite itself is not perfect 
or perfection would be a Universal Law 
and all growth would cease by reason 
thereof. 

Freedom therefore is not something 
which is absolute, something which is fixed, 
something which can be defined and lim- 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL—FREEDOM! 5 


ited—because freedom is only limited by 
the consciousness of the individual. 

And so freedom means different things 
to different people. 

To some it means license, licentiousness, 
littleness, disease, decay, death. 

To others it means liberty, longevity, 
largeness, limitlessness, and therefore 
greatness, growth and life. 

The sum total of what it means to in¬ 
dividuals is the ideal of the race or nation. 

Mankind, whether individuals, families, 
races or nations, can he divided into two 
general classes, or two lines of thought. 

The first class are those who are limited 
in their consciousness, and whose science, 
philosophy and religion is based upon the 
manifestations of Energy. 

The purely physical and mental types 
of consciousness belong to this class. 


6 SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 

The second class are those who are un¬ 
limited in their consciousness, and whose 
science, philosophy and religion is based, 
either consciously or unconsciously, on 
Energy itself and its limitlessness. 

There are many persons in the world 
who belong to this second class who have 
never heard of the Sears Philosophy; they 
have never heard of the unlimitedness of 
consciousness which we teach from this 
platform; nevertheless they belong to this 
second class for they have unconsciously 
reached out into the unknowable and 
made it the knowable to their souls. 

Such persons have unconsciously 
reached out, refusing to be limited by the 
physical and mental states of conscious¬ 
ness, and grasped the unlimited with 
the mighty power of their own con¬ 


sciousness. 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL-FREEDOM! 7 

These two classes intermingle and are 
interwoven with each other more or less. 

There is no pure type of either class, no 
absolute type, and that is why it has been 
so difficult for man to see and understand 
these different types. 

One must be a very close student and 
analyst, and study life from all its angles 
to be able to classify man’s characteristics 
and appreciate fully the different types so 
closely interwoven, interpenetrating and 
intermingling are they. 

In the first class we find those who are 
dominated by the physical and mental 
states of consciousness; who refuse to 
allow their human mind to get out into the 
unlimited realms of the infinite. 

In the second class are those whose un¬ 
limited ideals find room for action and 
who use their physical and mental states 


8 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


of consciousness to materialize as best they 
can in their more or less imperfect way 
these unlimited ideals. 

All life everywhere is the result of 
action and reaction. 

The first class of people, those domi¬ 
nated by the physical and mental states 
of consciousness, see this action and re¬ 
action only on the objective plane; they 
are able to cognize it only with their 
physical and mental senses and they 
therefore limit cause and effect, action and 
reaction. 

In their science they call action and 
reaction, positive and negative; in their 
philosophy, good and bad; and in their 
religion, God and devil. 

The second class, those that live in the 
unlimited side of their consciousness, see 
action and reaction not only on the ob- 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL—FREEDOM! 9 


jective plane but they see that the primary 
or original action lies back of the objective 
plane and is located in the power which 
uses Energy to manipulate form in the 
objective world. 

Instead therefore of limiting their 
science, philosophy and religion to posi¬ 
tive and negative, good and bad, God and 
devil, they see all life as one; action and 
reaction being one and the same, differ¬ 
ing only in its manifestation through 
form. 

They see good and bad as being the 
same thing—Energy manifesting through 
form. 

They see God and devil exactly the 
same thing—Energy manifesting through 
different forms—that is all. 

While the first class live in the con¬ 
sciousness of the separateness of life, the 


10 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


second class live in the consciousness of 
the union or oneness of all life. 

The first class see only the form and 
the manifestation of Energy through 
form. 

They limit themselves to form, either 
material or spiritual or both, and so in 
order to control things in the objective 
world they must limit others for self- 
preservation. 

When they are asked: “Am I my 
brother’s keeper?” they answer, “Yes, I 
am responsible for my brother.” 

Instead of giving their brother an op¬ 
portunity to work out his freedom in his 
own way they say to him: “My way is 
the only way and you must come my way 
or be forever damned.” 

They never once see the great truth 
that their judgment is based wholly on 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL—FREEDOM! 11 


the external side of life and that each soul’s 
way is the best way for it to learn its 
lesson of life no matter how poor a way 
it might be for every other soul. 

The second class, looking back of all 
manifestations of Energy through form 
and seeing the oneness of all life, seeing 
that these manifestations are simply dif¬ 
ferences in form and not in the Energy 
which created them, when asked the 
question: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” 
says, “No, I am my brother’s Teacher ” 

This class knows and understands that 
in order to be its brother’s Teacher it 
must lift up its own life, do the work 
upon its own consciousness instead of 
attempting to “reform” the other fellow. 

This class realizes what the man Jesus 
meant when he said: “If I (the God, or 
good, or harmonious in me) be lifted up 


12 SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 

(that is gotten out into expression) I 
will draw all men unto me.” 

This class appreciates the fact that the 
only constructive way to draw people or 
things to us is to have the “drawing” 
process mutual. 

And that the only way to truly uplift 
mankind is to teach it how to uplift itself 
rather than attempt to force its uplift* 
ment with threats of its punishment or 
destruction. 

The principles underlying the great war 
are the same as those which caused the 
Pilgrim Fathers to come to the shores of 
America. 

They are the same as those which 
caused our Revolutionary and Civil 
Wars. 

These principles are those which under¬ 
lie freedom at all stages of man’s unfold- 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL—FREEDOM! 13 


ment in every age—freedom, not only of 
the body and mind, but freedom of the 
soul and spirit. 

No matter what the objective causes 
may have been; no matter what specific 
reasons the different Nations in any and 
all ages may have given for engaging in 
war, the fact still remains to those who 
look with eyes that see and whose ears 
can hear that back behind all of the objec¬ 
tive causes and specific reasons lies this 
great truth the real cause was and always 
has been the ideals of the warring people, 
no matter what language was used in 
which to state such ideals nor how destruc¬ 
tive, undeveloped and uncivilized those 
ideals may have been. 

And what has been the one great ideal 
of them all in every age and in every 
stage of development? 


14 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


FREEDOM. 

Freedom to do that which each wanted 
to do. 

In considering the great world war let 
us take first the German ideal for that 
represents the interpretation the Central 
Powers placed on this word FREE¬ 
DOM. 

The German ideal was that the people 
are created for the State. All for the 
State; business, home, family, even life 
itself for the State. 

And who is the State? 

The political power which rules it. 

What was the result? 

Freedom? No indeed, but slavery 
instead. 

Slavery of the people to the State 
ideal—the same as the people have been 
enslaved by the religious ideals. 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL—FREEDOM! 15 


Slavery of the people for the aggran¬ 
dizement of the State and its rulers. 

The only difference between this ideal 
and that of the Christian Church and all 
other dogmatic religions in all ages has 
been the object and in the principle 
underlying the object. 

The ideal of the religions which worship 
a Personal God is that the people are 
created for the Church—instead of the 
State. All for the Church rather than for 
the State. 

It has been this difference in objects 
which has always aroused the antagonism 
of the Roman Catholic Church when sepa¬ 
ration of Church and State has occurred. 

In such cases the people have had two 
ideals—the Church and the State—and 
one had to become subordinate to the other 
at times. 


16 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


What was the result, the effect, of this 
ideal of “all for the State?” 

It gave to the German Empire an ob¬ 
jective efficiency in a few short years such 
as the world had never witnessed before 
simply because it concentrated all the 
power objectively upon the materializa¬ 
tion of things, and in the repression of the 
consciousness back of that materializa¬ 
tion has that ideal worked out its own 
failure. 

Its great objective strength, obtained 
under the Law of Force, proved its great¬ 
est weakness in the finality. 

“The mills of the gods grind slow but 
sure and exceedingly fine” we are told, 
and that is true. 

The Universal Law is at work at all 
times and it matters not whether it is the 
German Empire, the British Empire, 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL—FREEDOM! 17 


France, Italy, America, or just some one 
lowly and insignificant person, the law 
works . 

And what of the other ideal—the 
world’s ideal of freedom? 

It is that the State is created by and 
for the people. 

That is the world’s ideal of freedom. 

And what is the result? 

Freedom of the people politically. 
Freedom of the people religiously. Free¬ 
dom of the people scientifically, philo¬ 
sophically, and in every other way; the 
upliftment of the State as a whole through 
the upliftment of the individuals or units 
composing the State. 

While it is true that this ideal worked 
out under these laws gives the greatest 
diversity apparently in the objective 
world and causes man to scatter his forces 


18 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


broadcast rather than concentrate them, 
yet while doing this it creates a power 
through individual independence, and de¬ 
velops a consciousness within man the 
strength of which in its finality is so over¬ 
whelming that mankind has not yet begun 
to realize but a very limited idea of its 
possibilities. 

Its strength and power is unlimited 
relatively speaking as compared with the 
other ideal. 

From the earliest history man has 
attempted to rise in the material world 
through the enslaving of his fellow- 
man. 

In his ignorance and lack of under¬ 
standing this was and has been the best 
method he knew. 

It was the only way he knew how to do 
and he never realized how weak and im- 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL-FREEDOM! 19 


potent his “know how” was in the last 
analysis. 

His first attempt was through the 
physical slavery of man by brute strength. 

Then came the mental slavery through 
his greater mental knowledge and power. 

As these two methods grew and un¬ 
folded he found a third method which 
combined them both and which he used. 
This was the religions he created. 

He first created a physical god with 
forms and ceremonies for man to worship 
—idols of wood, stone, silver, gold, to 
symbolize the object of his worship. 

As time went on and men began to 
grow an intellect these material idols lost 
their power to hold the people in bondage 
and so an invisible god of spirit was cre¬ 
ated which man called the real God. 

This was followed by the creation of 


20 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


an idol of flesh such as Confucius, 
Brahma, Krishna, Jesus, Mohammed and 
the other saviours of the world. 

They were one and all gods of form, 
whether made of gold, flesh or spirit and 
so were idols; ideals converted into form 
and worshipped, thus becoming idols. 

The fight of the priesthood in all ages 
from the beginning of time down to the 
present day to obtain temporal power has 
been to enslave man through his religious 
and secular pursuits. 

The priesthood of ancient Chaldea, of 
Egypt, of Greece, have all been swept 
away by the Universal Law in the work¬ 
ing out of the Law of Cause and Effect, 
and the priesthood of the Russian Church 
found itself impotent and powerless when 
autocracy was swept away. 

The fight of the autocrat, of kings and 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL-FREEDOM! 21 


emperors, against the Church and the 
priesthood has been simply so that they 
instead of the Church should control and 
enslave the people. 

England would not have become Prot¬ 
estant England at the time she did had it 
not been that one of her kings wanted 
another wife and the Pope refused to 
allow the divorce. This king then set 
aside the papist authority and raised the 
standard of Protestant England. 

The fight for home rule in Ireland has 
never been a question of political rule but 
rather one of religious rule. Had it been 
one purely of political freedom Ireland 
would have had home rule half a century 
ago. 

The reason that the Order of Jesuits 
and all other similar secret religious so¬ 
cieties were expelled from both Germany 


22 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


and France was not because of their re¬ 
ligion but rather because they made their 
religion paramount to the State and re¬ 
fused to forswear their religious oaths 
when brought into contact with their oath 
of loyalty to the State. 

The fight of capital against labor has 
the same object in view and labor on its 
part is not wholly free from this ignorance 
either. 

Autocracy, plutocracy, religion, every¬ 
where have always been the symbol of 
some kind of slavery. 

We see the union of plutocracy and re¬ 
ligion in the joining hands of the multi¬ 
millionaires in the financing of the great re¬ 
ligious revivals which are held in the large 
cities of our country from time to time. 

Democracy has always been the symbol 
of freedom. 


WORLDS GREATEST IDEAL—FREEDOM! 23 


I do not mean by this that governments 
under a democracy have always been free; 
but democracy has been the symbol of 
freedom no matter what the government 
which used the name might be. 

Man has always been a slave to his 
ignorance, his prejudice and his bigotry. 

The German ideal is the same old ideal 
of ignorant and undeveloped man’s use 
of force, and like all others who belong 
to the first class, the class with the limited 
consciousness, they are limited in their 
ideals, whether king or emperor, autocrat, 
priest or religionist, and without regard 
to their nationality. 

In speaking of the German ideal and 
its limitedness it should be understood 
that I do not refer to the individual Ger¬ 
man but of the race consciousness as a 
whole. 


24 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


There are some Germans who are as 
big, great, broad, liberal minded and un¬ 
limited, and have as deep an understand¬ 
ing of life as some Americans but they are 
few and far between. 

There are also some Americans who are 
just as narrow, limited, bigoted, as the 
most primitive and narrow-minded of 
those who belong to the German ideal 
class. 

Because a man belongs to the narrow, 
limited and bigoted class we should not 
want to hate him because in hating any¬ 
one we are only hating ourselves. 

This does not mean we have to like any 
of his manifestations but it does mean we 
are not to hate the life itself no matter 
how crude and destructive its manifesta¬ 
tions may be. 

We simply recognize his place in con- 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL—FREEDOM! 25 


sciousness, his state of development and 
unfoldment and instead of condemning 
and criticizing him we remember that “If 
I be lifted up I draw all men unto me,” 
and so we work to lift up the human self 
by keeping in the harmonious currents 
rather than allow ourselves to get down 
into the inharmonious ones. 

And so this first class which believed 
in limited ideals has at all times and under 
all circumstances set up different kinds of 
authority with which to coerce, cajole and 
frighten man. 

They claimed that the king was divine; 
that the king could do no wrong; that the 
Pope was vice-regent of God and in¬ 
fallible. 

They have given us many other similar 
statements as the result of their nar¬ 
row, limited consciousness and we in 


36 SE&RS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 

our ignorance have believed and con¬ 
tinued to remain limited in our con¬ 
sciousness. 

The Christian world has cited the bible 
and their interpretation of it as their 
authority with the result that through such 
interpretation the Christian nations have 
held their followers in the most abject 
slavery in so far as their religious teach¬ 
ings were concerned. 

But whatever difference of opinion men 
may have as to the “divine” origin of the 
bible, as to whether or not the king is 
“divine,” as to the Pope being the vice¬ 
regent of God, and upon what authority 
these different claims may be based, there 
is one thing upon which there cannot be 
any difference of opinion among thinking 
people and that is that every interpreta¬ 
tion of the bible, every interpretation as 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEALr-FREEDOM! 27 


to the divinity of the king, every interpre¬ 
tation as to the Pope being the vice¬ 
regent of God, is man’s interpretation and 
none other than man. 

Such interpretation has never come 
from anyone else but man, and how man 
has interpreted these questions has de¬ 
pended entirely upon whether he belong 
to the first or second class; whether his 
consciousness was limited or unlimited. 

Moses teachings belonged to the first 
class because from first to last they were 
purely ethical in their character. 

The ten commandments, while good 
laws ethically speaking and were needed 
by the people whom he governed, do not 
contain one single universal principle of 
constructiveness. 

From first to last they are negative. 
“Thou shalt not.” Nowhere do they teach 


28 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


the universal laws nor their application 
but are wholly devoted to things . 

They are followed by a long list of 
rules, regulations, forms and ceremonies 
which Moses laid down for observance by 
his people. 

When we study the history of the Jews 
of his day we can readily understand why 
these ten commandments and all that fol¬ 
lowed them were necessary, and we can 
also understand by a comparison of the 
consciousness of the Jews of Moses time 
why they are still needed by the ignorant 
and undeveloped souls of to-day. 

The consciousness that is vile and 
vicious because of its ignorance and un¬ 
development sees only the same character¬ 
istics in others. 

The consciousness that recognizes “all 
is good” looks back of all these manifes- 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL-FREEDOM! 29 


tations of ignorance and is pure, not be¬ 
cause it is compelled to be through fear 
of punishment or hope of reward but be¬ 
cause it is the highest, best and greatest 
thing it knows how to be. 

Such a life does not need the ethical 
rules, regulations, forms and ceremonies 
which camouflage the conventionalities of 
society. 

The teachings of the man Jesus (not 
the interpretations the Christian world has 
given them but the deeper understanding 
of them) belong to the second class of 
consciousness and that is why the world 
in spite of its limitations has reached out 
towards these teachings with the greatest 
longing and desire and has grasped and 
taken to its heart, even the limited inter¬ 
pretations given it, longing, straining 
and striving to its utmost to drink more 


30 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


deeply of their wonderful inspiration and 
power. 

These teachings are based on principle 
while those of Moses were based on policy. 

Jesus teachings sought to free man 
from his external bondage of things by 
freeing him first in his consciousness. 

The Christian Church, both Roman 
Catholic and Protestant, are controlled 
by the first class of persons and that is 
why we have had the interpretations of 
these teachings of Jesus which are com¬ 
monly known as Christianity. 

This was not so during the first three 
hundred years of the Christian era but has 
been true since then. 

Those in power of both of these 
branches of Christianity are the people 
Jesus referred to when he said: “Beware 
of the wolves in sheep’s clothing.” 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL-FREEDOM! 31 


The Christian Church has the “sheep’s 
clothing” in its use of the name of Jesus 
Christ, but it does not have the conscious¬ 
ness that Jesus taught the world. 

Instead of this it has the consciousness 
of the wolf (symbolically speaking) and 
would force the world into the slavery of 
its belief and the worship of its idols, its 
forms, ceremonies. 

The “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” that is 
the Christianity of the Church, would 
take away from every life its freedom to 
think for itself and would send it into ever¬ 
lasting punishment for refusing to submit 
to the slavery of the Church. 

I do not say this in any spirit of criti¬ 
cism or condemnation, but state it merely 
as a fact which we all know and recognize 
whether we admit it or not. 

In spite of its limitations the Christian 


32 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


Church has been an influence for good 
on the civilization of the world, and so has 
every other religion, no matter how crude 
and debased as we see it to-day it may 
have been. 

The world has needed them all or they 
would not have existed for the Universal 
Law does not permit anything to continue 
as soon as its usefulness has ceased to 
exist. 

So with the Church; we have needed it 
in the past; we still need it for those souls 
that can use it, and so we know it will con¬ 
tinue to exist for the benefit of such souls. 

We would not destroy its usefulness 
were it possible to do so, and could not do 
so did we have the want. 

Our only desire is to teach that part 
of the world which is ready for a larger 
ideal of life. 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL—FREEDOM! 33 


We have no desire to convert any soul 
to a larger ideal. 

The framers of the United States Con¬ 
stitution belonged to the second class. 

They were big men with a big vision 
or they never could have written such a 
document. 

“All men are born free and equal.” 

Where in the religious, philosophical, 
scientific, or political history of the world 
has there ever been recorded a statement 
so great, a vision so grand, an ideal so won¬ 
derful, so beautiful, so unlimited in every 
way as “All men are born free and equal.” 

Why the world has never even begun 
to appreciate the great, wonderful con¬ 
sciousness which could conceive such a big 
ideal. 

No limitations anywhere; no excep¬ 
tions; no qualifications; but all men— 


34 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


ALL—and that statement is true, under 
the Universal Law. 

Every soul is born free and equal in its 
inherent power—white or black, yellow or 
red, rich or poor, great or small. 

The only difference between people of 
all races, nations, classes, is simply in the 
amount of that power each gets out into 
harmonious expression—not in the power 
itself, nor in the ability to express. 

Why my friends were it possible for 
anything in the world to be worth fight¬ 
ing for there is nothing anywhere which 
begins to compare with freedom . 

When we have built that consciousness 
of freedom within our own soul we will 
never have to fight for it. 

But until that time comes it is far bet¬ 
ter, far less destructive to fight for it, 
whether we do our fighting on the 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL-FREEDOM! 35 


physical, the mental, the soul or the spirit¬ 
ual plane, than it is to allow ourselves to 
become enslaved. 

But in fighting for it we do not need 
to have what is known as the “fighter’s 
consciousness.” 

It is not necessary to fight with a con¬ 
sciousness of hate, of anger, of worry, of 
fear, of anxiety, or in any other of these 
negative and destructive states of mind. 

It is not necessary for us to do our fight¬ 
ing with that kind of a consciousness, but 
we can gird on our armor, sling our gun 
over our shoulder and go forth knowing 
that under the Universal Law we are 
fighting our battle of freedom and doing 
it with a consciousness so big, so great, so 
strong, so powerful and so harmonious 
that there is no room left in it for inhar¬ 
mony of any kind to creep in. 


36 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


And then, THEN, in that state of 
consciousness is our fighting the most 
harmonious and constructive that is 
possible. 

We must always know that freedom 
never means license. 

Man’s first use of Energy along any 
line new to him is always imperfect and 
more or less destructive. 

This is because he is ignorant of its 
use in that particular manner. 

Only by learning to use it along that 
line, profiting by the mistakes he makes, 
the destructive effects which he reaps as 
the result of his ignorance, does he ever 
learn to use it constructively. 

“The cure of the thing is in the thing 
itself” we have been told; that is in ex¬ 
pressing and so learning the effects of 
such expression. 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL—FREEDOM! 37 


No people can ever be really free as 
long as part of them are subject to any 
kind of bondage—physical, mental, soul 
or spiritual—no matter what the bondage 
may be. 

When man denies to others the privi¬ 
lege he demands for himself he sets causes 
in motion which make for his own enslave¬ 
ment. 

We are neither bound nor free by ex¬ 
ternal conditions of body or environment 
but by our consciousness and thought 
habits which have become fixed within us. 

Some negroes in the South did not want 
their freedom in the days of the civil war. 
They had been slaves in their conscious¬ 
ness and thought habits so long that they 
were afraid of the responsibility which 
freedom entailed. 

The same is true with some men and 


38 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


women in the political and religious 
worlds everywhere. 

They have been slaves in their con¬ 
sciousness to their political and religious 
idols for so many incarnations that they 
are afraid to face the responsibility which 
freedom entails upon the individual. 

Our faculties and the ability to use our 
power atrophies unless we use them. 

We should therefore give to all man¬ 
kind its freedom, both religious and secu¬ 
lar, because in freeing them in our con¬ 
sciousness we free ourselves. 

For more than a century our country, 
these United States of America, has been 
preparing its sons and daughters for that 
greater freedom through its religious tol¬ 
erance and its public schools. 

The day is not long since gone by, and 
even still exists in some isolated commu- 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL—FREEDOM! 39 


nities, where the term agnostic and atheist 
was a word of scorn, criticism and condem¬ 
nation. 

But the world is growing, and to be 
called an agnostic, to realize that one does 
not know; to be called an atheist, to real¬ 
ize that one has passed from the slavery 
and bondage of a fetish belief which man 
has imposed upon him and risen to a point 
where he refuses to believe this old thing, 
is simply a sign-post on his journey and 
an indication of the progress towards 
freedom of that soul. It is not a sign of 
scorn unless the soul is ashamed of its 
progress. 

But better still is to continue along the 
pathway where instead of saying ‘Sve 
don’t know,” or “we don’t believe,” we 
come into that state of consciousness 
where we can say “I KNOW”; where we 


40 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


come into the realization of our oneness 
with the universal life and see this greater 
freedom which we have to-day for all man¬ 
kind, the greatest ever in the world’s his¬ 
tory. 

And it is because of these great truths, 
because of this growing consciousness 
and bigger ideal of the world, the great¬ 
est ideal the world has ever known— 
FREEDOM—that the United States 
entered the great world war and why the 
Central Powers did not triumph. 

There are few of us who remember 
personally much about the civil war 
which raged in our country a half century 
ago but we are all more or less familiar 
with its history. 

We know that during most of the more 
than four years that the strife went on 
here between brothers in our own country 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL-FREEDOM! 41 


that the days for the most part were dark 
and gloomy for the preservation of the 
Union. 

But finally that day came when under 
the apple tree at Appomatox Lee handed 
his sword to Grant and the war was over. 

Grant—and let his name and act never 
be dimmed by time—instead of taking 
the victor’s part which history accords the 
conqueror in all ages and imposing the 
slavery of prisonership upon Lee and his 
army, gave back to Lee his sword, told 
him and his army to go home and take 
up their peaceful pursuits where they left 
them off at the beginning of the strife. 

All history from its beginning down 
to the present time does not record a 
grander, greater nor more sublime act on 
the part of the conqueror to the conquered 
than does this act of Grant, symbolical 


42 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


of the freedom consciousness of these 
great United States. 

Freedom? Yes, even to our enemies 
that had been. 

Freedom, without the consciousness of 
their being enemies to-day, but with the 
consciousness of our being one great peo¬ 
ple, one land, one great tremendous soul. 

And the South, it would not return to 
slavery days; it could not for its freedom 
consciousness is too great. 

And so the nations and peoples; the 
kings and emperors; the priests and re¬ 
ligions that stand in the path of FREE¬ 
DOM’S march will go down under the 
Cosmic Law as Pharaoh and his Egyptian 
hosts did in the days of old, and as all 
others since that time. 

All we need to do is to he loyal—be 
loyal to the world’s greatest ideal, FREE- 


WORLD’S GREATEST IDEAL—FREEDOM! 43 


DOM—and “Fear ye not but stand still 
and see the salvation of the Lord—the 
great Universal Law—which he will show 
you this day for the Egyptians (symboli¬ 
cal of darkness, ignorance and slavery, 
and the world’s enemies, the enemies of 
freedom) that ye have seen to-day ye shall 
see no more forever. The Lord (the Uni¬ 
versal Law) shall fight for you and ye 
shall hold your peace,” 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF 

HEALING 






Copyright 1919. F. W. Sears, M.P. All rights reserved. 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF 
HEALING 

by F. W. Sears, M. P. 

Sickness, disease, pain, sorrow, misery, 
unhappiness and lack of all kinds are 
luxuries, not necessities. 

Even those who are the richest in health 
cannot afford the luxury of a conscious¬ 
ness which produces sickness and disease. 

Even those who have the greatest 
abundance of joy, happiness and gladness 
in their life cannot afford the luxury of 
a consciousness which produces sorrow, 
misery, pain and anguish. 

Even though one might have the opu¬ 
lence of the Infinite yet he could not 
afford the luxury of a consciousness which 
produces poverty and lack. 

47 


48 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


The Infinite himself, with all his ap¬ 
parent and wanton extravagance and 
profligacy in all things, cannot afford 
these luxuries of sickness, disease, pain, 
sorrow, misery, unhappiness and lack. 

It remains for man to be so luxurious 
as to consider them necessities; things he 
must have and cannot get along without. 

Why cannot man afford them? 

Simply because we never manifest these 
or any other external conditions nor relate 
with them without having first created 
the consciousness which produces and re¬ 
lates us with them. 

Such a consciousness is too expensive 
and far reaching in its effects for the most 
opulent to acquire. 

It is an easy and simple matter to 
“cure” man of his aches and pains, his 
sorrows and miseries, his unhappiness and 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


49 


hunger, but it is an entirely different 
thing to “cure” him of the causes which 
produced and related him with these con¬ 
ditions. 

The curing of man’s aches, pains, sor¬ 
rows, miseries, unhappiness, poverty and 
lack, these external expressions of his 
ignorant consciousness, is of no real bene¬ 
fit, but to cure him of the lack and 
inharmony in his consciousness which pro¬ 
duced and related him with them; 

To teach him how not to set the causes 
m motion which produces and relates him 
with these conditions of lack is of lasting 
value. 

As long as man gives power to gods and 
devils, to people and things, to external 
conditions, rather than to that which 
manipulates the Energy which creates 
them; 


50 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


As long as man fails to recognize the 
great truth taught in the first chapter of 
Genesis—that man through his human 
mind has dominion here over all things— 
just so long will he continue to look with 
eyes which see only the effects and never 
the causes. 

Which see only the reaction and never 
the action. 

As long as man only knows that which 
he cognizes with his physical or human 
senses just so long will he continue to 
be the “blind leading the blind” and 
unable to learn either the true psychol¬ 
ogy of healing or the true psychology of 
life. 

The psychology of healing does not con¬ 
sist in merely displacing or “curing” 
physical ailments and material lack, but 
rather in learning the real cause which 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


51 


lies back of them, and how not to set such 
cause in motion. 

Henry Ford attempted to cure war by 
the old methods of dealing with effects, 
and his Peace Party were fighting among 
themselves almost before they were out of 
sight of America’s shores. 

His intentions were good but his 
methods were limited and destructive with 
the result that the world looked on, saw 
only the inevitable failure and condemned. 

The United States attempted to cure 
illegitimate warfare on the part of Ger¬ 
many, through using the same old methods 
of dealing with effects only, and was itself 
drawn into the maelstrom of war. 

It hasn’t learned its lesson yet and so is 
now hard at work in the organization of 
a “League of Nations” which is intended 
to prevent wars in the future by using 


52 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


the same old methods, but in a little 
different form, of dealing only with 
effects. 

Philanthropists everywhere attempt to 
cure poverty by relieving the physical 
wants but all the while giving the real 
cause no attention , ignoring it in their 
ignorance, thus permitting them to con¬ 
tinue and become more fixed in the con¬ 
sciousness of the individual. 

The medical profession and all kinds 
of drugless healers attempt to “cure” 
disease, each by his own particular 
method, yet to-day the hospitals and in¬ 
sane asylums continue to multiply, medi¬ 
cal colleges turn out more graduates, and 
drugless schools more practitioners each 
year than ever before in the world’s 
history. 

Why? 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


53 


Simply because mankind everywhere 
devotes its energy, time, knowledge, wis¬ 
dom and understanding, such as it has, to 
the relief of mental suffering, physical 
pain, hunger and lack—“curing” them it 
says—while paying no attention to and in 
absolute ignorance of the real cause which 
produces them. 

But man is growing and progressing, 
even though slowly, and therein lies his 
hope of the future. 

The fundamental principle underlying 
the healing from all of these effects in the 
body and environment—from Naaman 
bathing in the River Jordan down to the 
latest and most efficient drug invented by 
science, or the most approved method of 
the drugless healer; 

From the feeding of the Israelites dur¬ 
ing their forty years sojourn in the wil- 


64 SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 

derness, to the providing of work for the 
multitude by Henry Ford at a minimum 
wage of six dollars a day, is one and the 
same, no matter how much their methods 
may differ. 

I do not wish to be understood as in 
any way depreciating nor undervaluing 
these external methods. 

They are all right for their kind as far 
as they go but “their kind” is too limited 
and restricted for the developing con¬ 
sciousness of man. 

I am calling attention to them simply 
to point out their weakness and impotency 
when taken alone, and 

To show the great importance of going 
more deeply into the matter and thus 
unearthing the real causes which these 
external methods never have and never 
can reach. 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


55 


The real cause does not He in the re¬ 
moval of these physical effects from the 
body or environment, 

But in the use man makes of the 
Energy which creates the causes that pro¬ 
duce them. 

Man boasts of his wonderful intelli¬ 
gence and great ability, yet he fails to 
exercise the power and ability of the im¬ 
becile in keeping his body young and free 
from disease and his environment free 
from lack. 

I have seen many imbeciles (idiots, not 
insane persons) of varying ages but I 
have never yet seen a pure or nearly pure 
type of idiot or imbecile who was not 
strong, healthy and young in appearance 
no matter what his age might be. 

Now just what is the difference between 
an imbecile and a normal person? 


66 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


Simply this: The normal person can 
think, can use his human mind, while the 
imbecile, being devoid of a human mind, 
can do neither. 

It is very evident then that the way 
man uses the Universal Energy by the 
power of his human mind must hold the 
secret of his lack. 

The psychology of healing from lack 
of any kind means the healing of and by 
the soul or astral mind. 

This is more commonly referred to as 
the God-mind or God-self by most writers 
and teachers. 

In order to better understand the 
psychology of healing in its application to 
the physical body we should first learn 
what disease is and its cause. 

The physical body is composed of 
minute particles called electrons which 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING ^57, 

form atoms, molecules and still larger 
forms, 

These minute particles are always in 
constant motion, action, vibration. 

The different parts of the body are all 
made from this one universal substance 
which in its most minute form is called 
electron, but all of these different parts 
or forms vibrate at different rates of 
motion. 

This is what differentiates them into the 
many separate forms or kinds of material. 

Disease is the inharmonious or discor¬ 
dant vibration of the atoms of one part 
of the body in its relationship to the rest 
of the body. 

The “liver out of tune” is like a piano 
out of tune. 

The “out of tune” in both instances 
being the materialized effect of the igno- 


58 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


rant and destructive use of Energy by 
the human mind. 

Reverse the use of Energy and har¬ 
mony is restored. 

The same Energy may be used to ob¬ 
tain either effect just as the same energy 
will run the locomotive forward or back¬ 
ward, according to the use made of the 
lever. 

The same Energy produces disease or 
ease, sickness or health, inharmony or 
harmony, according to how it is used. 

Several years ago a young lady came 
to me with the following history: She had 
been running a temperature for several 
months. One brother had died of con¬ 
sumption two years before and her doctor 
said she had the same disease and told 
her she must go to the mountains at once 
and have complete rest. 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


59 


I told her that it didn’t make any dif¬ 
ference even though her brother had died 
of consumption. 

That even had her father and mother, 
her grandfather and grandmother on both 
sides of the family and all of her fore¬ 
fathers for generations past and gone 
died of the same disease, she did not have 
to either die with it or continue to have 
it any longer than she wanted. 

That she was stronger and more power¬ 
ful in her own consciousness and thought 
world than all of the generations which 
had preceded her since the beginning of 
time did she only use that power har¬ 
moniously and constructively. 

I taught her what to do and how to do 
it, and in three days time her temperature 
left her. 

A few days later she wanted to know 


60 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


whether she could go to work; that a 
position was open which she had wanted 
for a long time. 

I told her by all means to take it. 

She took it and went to work. She 
was under my care for about four months, 
never lost a day at her work, and when 
she went to her former doctor, at my sug¬ 
gestion, to be examined by him he told 
her the abscess in her lungs had healed 
entirely and that “she was as good as 
new.” 

Another woman came to me once with 
cancer of the breast. 

A friend of hers with similar trouble 
had been operated upon some two years 
before and had just recently died when 
this woman came to me. 

The part affected was as large as a 
good sized saucer while for a space about 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


61 


two inches in diameter the flesh had begun 
to slough off. 

I took her under my personal care and 
direction, taught her what to do and how 
to do it and in three months time there 
wasn’t the slightest thing to show she ever 
had a cancer. 

Let me say right here that I do not 
want you to get the idea that I did all of 
this for I didn’t. 

I simply taught her how to use Energy 
constructively, intelligently and harmo¬ 
niously, and at the same time helped to 
keep her in the more harmonious thought 
currents so that she could do the work for 
herself that much easier and better. 

I could talk all day for a week, giving 
the history of similar cases and then not 
be through with the many instances which 
have come under my observation. 


62 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


We all know how a change in environ¬ 
ment will many times either inspire one or 
depress him. 

This effect is occasioned entirely by his 
own thought attitude and there is no case 
in which it cannot be controlled either way 
will one only use the power he has within 
him intelligently, consciously and con¬ 
structively. 

Did you ever notice how one’s thoughts 
control the action of food in the stomach? 

I was dining at a restaurant one even¬ 
ing where they made a specialty of home 
made mince pie, of which I am quite 
fond. 

I had eaten one rather generous piece 
and was considering the advisability of 
ordering another when a couple at the 
next table asked the waiter what they had 
for dessert. 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


63 


He recommended the mince pie t when 
the lady exclaimed, “Oh I would never 
sleep a wink all night long did I eat a 
piece.” 

Well, I thought, here was poor inno¬ 
cent me who had gone and eaten a large 
piece of that terrible thing but I “might 
as well be hung for a goose as a gander” 
I thought and so I ordererd another piece 
just for good measure. 

Then I went home, entirely ignorant 
of the dreadful sin I had committed and 
slept the sleep of the innocent with nary 
a thought of remorse. 

There is a vast difference between 
ignoring or denying disease, and rising 
above its effects. 

We see the truth of this in the matter 
of light and darkness. 

We do not ignore nor deny the exist- 


64 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


ence of the darkness, neither do we fight 
nor condemn it. 

We simply recognize its existence and 
then “get busy” putting in its place that 
which we want, the light. 

We know that when we have created 
sufficient light it will take care of the dark¬ 
ness. 

And we also know that when we have 
created sufficient harmony in our con¬ 
sciousness that it will take care of the in¬ 
harmony of our body and environment. 

The human mind is the supreme power 
with which Energy is manipulated on this 
plane in so far as it relates to the human 
man. 

The astral mind (soul) is the supreme 
power on the astral plane in so far as the 
relationship of the astral or soul man is 
concerned. 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


65 


Man can use his human mind to 
manipulate Energy either constructively 
or destructively. 

He can allow his arm to atrophy from 
disuse, or he can keep it alive, active and 
useful according to the way he uses it by 
his human mind. 

He can do the same thing with his 
physical brain or any other faculty. 

When Energy is used destructively it is 
far more dangerous than the highest ex¬ 
plosive. 

When Energy is used constructively 
its power to upbuild is limited only by 
man’s understanding. 

We turn man loose upon the world in 
total ignorance of how to use this great 
power by his human mind, leaving him to 
learn by experience as best he can. 

But we pass laws restricting him in his 


66 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


use of the things he ignorantly and de¬ 
structively creates with this same power. 

? Through inharmonious thoughts, such 
as anger, hate, worry, fear, anxiety, con¬ 
demnation, criticism, “righteous indigna¬ 
tion,’’ impatience, intolerance, bigotry, 
resentment, resistance, human sympathy, 
etc., man uses Energy destructively and 
its effects register as disease in the body 
and lack in the environment. 

Through harmonious thought, that is 
the process reversed, man uses Energy 
constructively and the effects register as 
health in the body and joy, happiness, 
peace, and abundance of everything he 
desires in his environment. 

Thoughts are the unmaterialized sym¬ 
bols of our use of Energy. 

Energy is vibration, motion, action, 
life. 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


67 


Its constructive or destructive use is 
determined wholly by the character of the 
thoughts and the degree of harmony back 
of their use. 

As a concrete illustration of what we 
mean just think of fear for five minutes 
as hard as you can, then think of kindness 
for another five minutes and note the dif¬ 
ference in your feelings, that is the bodily 
vibrations. 

Angry thoughts increase the vibrations 
abnormally and produce friction, heat, 
activity. 

Fear thoughts lower the vibrations ab¬ 
normally and produce coldness, congeal- 
ment, inactivity. 

Thoughts of kindness and good-will in¬ 
crease the vibrations without producing 
friction, pressure, heat, or force. 

Their action is to lift one up into the 


68 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


more harmonious and constructive cur¬ 
rents where we find calmness, poise, 
strength, courage, power, confidence, 
harmony. 

All forms of healing, whether by drugs, 
electricity, osteopathy, chiropractic, Chris¬ 
tian Science, Mental Science, New 
Thought, or otherwise, symbolize different 
vibratory rates peculiar to each. 

All can and do remove physical effects 
of disease (inharmony) through chang¬ 
ing the vibrations of the atoms of the 
body. 

The universal Law underlying all of 
these methods is one and the same, that 
is the changing of the vibratory rates of 
the atoms of the body. 

The real cause which produced the 
bodily inharmony is not removed by sim¬ 
ply displacing these physical effects and 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 69 

restoring the body to its normal harmoni¬ 
ous vibration, no matter what method is 
used, any more than the cause of a fire 
is removed simply by clearing away the 
debris. 

In both instances the effects only would 
be removed. 

To get at the real cause in either and 
all instances we must begin with the 
human mind and the visitors it en¬ 
tertains. 

What are these visitors ? 

The thoughts which come to us and 
which we permit to enter and remain in 
our thought world. 

We must learn to analyze each thought 
which comes, dissect it, and then displace 
it the moment we find that it is anything 
less than harmonious and constructive. 

The use man makes of Energy by the 


70 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


power of his human mind is telegraphed 
to every atom of his body and environment 
through the two nervous systems of his 
body and the emanations, atmosphere or 
vibrations he gives out. 

Destructive thoughts create discord 
which register in that part of the body or 
environment which is least resistant or the 
most receptive. 

Harmony or health is restored when¬ 
ever the discordant part is restored to its 
normal vibration. 

All forms of treatment, whether by 
drugs or drugless methods, may do this 
just as the tuning key tightens or loosens 
the piano strings and so restores harmony 
to the piano. 

When any of such methods are used 
health is restored to the physical body 
through the intelligence in its physical 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


71 


cells, just as harmony is restored to the 
piano strings by the tuning key through 
their atomic intelligence. 

The human mind, which dominates all 
atomic and cell intelligence, is not cured 
in either case. 

We can tune the piano perfectly but 
that does not tune either the player, the 
atmospheric conditions, nor anything else 
which might have had a part in getting 
it out of tune. 

And so with the physical body. We 
can restore harmony to it times without 
number but that does not cure either the 
human mind or the soul which manifests 
through it. 

Each life is the only one that can cure 
its own human mind and soul. 

Others can only teach it how to do the 
work and aid in making the conditions 


72 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


under which the work is done more har¬ 
monious and therefore easier, but each life 
itself must do the work or it will not be 
done. 

When that occurs inharmony ceases to 
manifest in the body or its environment 
because the causes which produced the 
inharmony have ceased to exist, and the 
new causes enable us to rise above the 
effects of our old inharmonious ones. 

The physical cells of the body receive 
and obey the new message of harmony 
which the human mind as well as the God- 
mind or soul is now forever sending to 
them. 

Our faith now is founded on the con¬ 
sciousness which knows —not hopes, nor 
wishes, nor even believes, but which 
knows —and this has made us whole or 
holy. 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


73 


“As thou believest so be it unto thee” 
has become a truth to us, and we go with 
Naaman to the River Jordan of our con¬ 
sciousness and are healed. 








HOW TO CHANGE ENVIRON¬ 
MENT 


p 


Copyright 1919. F. W. Sears, M.P. All rights reserved. 


HOW TO CHANGE ENVIRON¬ 
MENT 

by F. W. Sears, M. P. 

Before we can begin to understand the 
Universal Law which governs all changes 
we may make in our environment (no 
matter what the external “cause” may be) 
we must know something of what creates 
our environment in the first place and 
how it is created. 

Who is responsible for our environment 
is something akin to the old question of 
“which came first, the egg or the 
chicken?” 

Such questions only arise because all of 
man’s science, philosophy, and religion, 
and therefore all of its teachings hereto- 
77 


78 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


fore, have been founded on the manifes¬ 
tations of Energy and are therefore dual- 
istic, instead of being founded on Energy 
itself, as is the Sears Philosophy, which is 
purely monistic. 

In this connection let me again em¬ 
phasize the great truth that Energy is 
universal ; that it is monistic in power 
hut dualistic in manifestation, and that it 
is necessary for one to see this great truth 
and understand the difference which this 
basic or fundamental principle makes be¬ 
tween the Sears Philosophy and all other 
science, philosophy and religion, before 
one can follow clearly this new teaching. 

Our language, being based upon and its 
growth made to convey the meaning of 
science, philosophy and religion based on 
a lesser and more limited fundamental 
than is the Sears Philosophy, does not and 


HOW TO CHANGE ENVIRONMENT 79 


cannot always convey to the student the 
real meaning and import of the larger 
truth unless the student gives-to words the 
very BIGGEST interpretation possible 
to conceive, and even then words fail to 
convey but a small portion of the BIG¬ 
NESS and DEPTH of UNDER¬ 
STANDING of the Sears Philosophy. 

The Sears Philosophy being based on 
Energy itself sees that back of all mani¬ 
festations is the one great universal 
Energy and that “all life is one,” and “my 
Father and I are one,” is a truth of the 
“oneness of all life” too big for those who 
only see the manifestations of Energy to 
comprehend or understand until they 
grow a bigger consciousness. 

The human mind by itself can only dis¬ 
cern Energy when it manifests in some 
material form, and it must allow its astral 


80 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


or “soul” mind to express and absorb in 
order to “see” beyond the material form 
through which Energy expresses and so 
begin to understand something of Energy 
itself. 

There are always two manifestations of 
Energy in every form—Action and Re¬ 
action, Positive and Negative, Good and 
Rad, God and Devil—man has called 
them according to the attitude he has 
taken towards these manifestations and 
the effect they have had upon him. 

But to get back to the “egg and the 
chicken.” They are both the materialized 
manifestations of Energy; the material 
forms through which Energy expresses on 
this plane. 

The Law of Evolution, in its relation¬ 
ship to form, is a well established Law; 
that is the evolving of material form from 


HOW TO CHANGE ENVIRONMENT 81 


a lesser to a higher or more expressive 
form. 

We are taught that the embryonic cell 
from which a human body is formed is 
exactly the same kind of a cell (in so far 
as science is able to discern) as is the 
embryonic cell from which the lowest form 
of animal life is evolved, and that the 
embryonic cell which grows into a human 
body passes through all the stages of ani¬ 
mal life from the lowest form to that of 
the highest in its process of producing the 
human body. 

This being true we can readily see that 
the egg, being a lower form than is the 
chicken, came first. 

Energy then continued its work 
through material form and finally evolved 
the form of the chicken and its power to 
reproduce itself through the egg. 


82 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


Energy, working through material 
form, is therefore responsible for and cre¬ 
ated both of these manifestations. 

In these two illustrations just given we 
see the Law back of them which is “the 
evolution of form from a lesser to a higher 
or more expressive form,” and by apply¬ 
ing this same Law to our original question 
we find that environment, being the lesser 
form, came first before man was created. 

We also see that Energy, continuing its 
work of evolution through material form 
after environment (the earth and every¬ 
thing in it was created) finally created the 
form of man and then placed him in an 
environment to correspond with his more 
evolved form. 

Energy is therefore responsible for and 
created both of these forms or manifesta¬ 
tions which we call environment and man. 


HOW TO CHANGE ENVIRONMENT 83 

The natural relationship between man 
and his environment is therefore mutual, 
the same as is the relationship between the 
egg and the chicken. 

We all recognize the fact that the kind 
of a chicken produced is affected by the 
kind of an egg from which it evolved; and 
that the egg reproduced by the chicken 
is affected by the kind and quality of the 
chicken which produced it. 

Just as the quality of the egg may be 
improved or deteriorated according to the 
care taken of it (affected by environment) 
so can the quality of the chicken be im¬ 
proved or lessened in the same way. 

We therefore can plainly see the two 
manifestations of Energy at work in both 
the chicken and the egg, viz.: action and 
reaction, and the effect is “good or bad” 
according to the uhe made of both these 


84 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


manifestations and NOT according to 
any inherent “goodness” nor “badness” 
on the part of either. 

What is true about the egg and the 
chicken is also true about man. 

BUT with this difference that man, by 
reason of his greater freedom to express 
or manifest Energy, has greater power to 
initiate than either the egg or the chicken. 

This philosophic conception of man and 
his power is borne out by the biblical story 
of the creation, and the brief history of 
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden or 
Paradise. 

According to that story God (Energy) 
first created a world of form and then 
created all the forms (environment) in¬ 
cluding the Garden of Eden and Para¬ 
dise. 

God (Energy) then completed his work 


HOW TO CHANGE ENVIRONMENT 85 


of creating form by the creation of his 
highest form, man, both male and female. 

These forms (man, both male and fe¬ 
male) were created in the “likeness and 
image of God” (Energy) and given all 
power over all the lesser forms. 

“God (Energy) looked upon every¬ 
thing he had created and said it was very 
good.” 

This means that everything created was 
perfect for its kind. No imperfections in 
the work of creation in so far as form or 
the manifestation of Energy was con¬ 
cerned. 

Man, the highest form or manifestation, 
found himself perfect in physical form, 
and living in a perfect environment ( man¬ 
ifestation) or Paradise of form . 

We must keep in mind that while the 
egg is a manifestation of Energy in form, 


86 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


and so also is the chicken, that the latter 
is a higher or more expressive form than 
the former. 

So with man and his environment. 
They are both manifestations or forms 
through which Energy manifests, but man 
is a higher or more expressive form and 
so has power over the environment. 

Right here is where we have to give 
consideration to another matter and that 
is the “something” which comes and takes 
possession of the physical body at birth 
and leaves it at death; the “soul” or astral 
body and mind of man. 

The consciousness, the intellect, the 
human mind of man, which comes into 
action through the life imparted to the 
physical body by the advent of the soul, 
being of finer form than either the envi¬ 
ronment or the human body itself, has 


HOW TO CHANGE ENVIRONMENT 87 


still greater power to use Energy in both 
the body and environment than has the 
consciousness or intelligence of either the 
atoms of the environment or the cells of 
the human body. 

Through this consciousness or intellect 
the human mind by its use of Energy can 
produce, consciously or unconsciously, any 
kind of an action or reaction (manifesta¬ 
tion) in its body or environment it may 
desire. 

Man is now and always has been a 
free agent to use Energy in any way he 
might desire, and he always will continue 
to possess this power whenever he is ready 
to exercise it. 

Man has never been bound nor limited 
in any way except by the Laws he has 
ignorantly and unconsciously made for 
himself, and he is just now coming into 


88 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


an understanding where he is beginning to 
see this truth. 

When man found himself in his Para¬ 
dise, perfect in both human body and en¬ 
vironment, what did he do? 

Just what every man and woman does 
to-day when he finds himself in a similar 
condition. 

There are children born to-day who are 
perfect in physical body and have a Para¬ 
dise for their environment, and they are 
no different to-day in their Garden of 
Eden than were Adam and Eve of old. 

The first thing the child does, whether 
born into a perfect or an imperfect envi¬ 
ronment or whether possessed of a perfect 
or a diseased physical body, is to attempt 
to express Energy in some way. 

Man’s first use of Energy along any 
line with which he is not familiar is always 


HOW TO CHANGE ENVIRONMENT 89 


awkward, clumsy, crude, uncouth, de¬ 
structive. 

Take the child learning to use its hands 
or feet, or learning to talk, or to crawl or 
walk. 

Take the “grown ups” learning art, 
music, any profession or a trade of any 
kind. 

No matter whether it is in the child 
just born or in the man of mature years, 
the result is always the same, viz.: that 
man’s first use of Energy along any line 
new to him is always imperfect or destruc¬ 
tive in its effect. 

This is not because man is inherently 
vile, wicked, sinful, vicious, nor because of 
any “original sin” which his ancestors 
have committed but because he is ignorant 
and it is natural law to obtain imperfect 
effects from imperfect causes. 


90 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


Man wants knowledge, wisdom, under¬ 
standing. He wants to become “wise like 
the gods.” 

Instinctively and intuitively he knows 
that only by using or expressing Energy 
will he ever obtain any knowledge, wisdom 
and understanding. 

Were it not for this same eternal unrest 
in the consciousness manifesting in and 
through all forms of life there would be 
no further growth nor unfoldment. Stag¬ 
nation and then complete inertia or death 
would be the final result. 

While it is true that it is natural law 
for the results of man’s first use of 
Energy along any line new to him to be 
imperfect, this is only true as long as man 
remains in that lesser state of conscious¬ 
ness. 

When man recognizes his own power 


HOW TO CHANGE ENVIRONMENT 91 


as the Master of all these lesser forms of 
manifestation, and recognizes that this 
power is his because of the oneness of all 
life; that the Energy back of all manifes¬ 
tation or form is universal, and then uses 
his knowledge, wisdom and understanding 
to direct Energy along harmonious and 
constructive lines with the power of his 
consciousness which he has created by his 
human mind, there is nothing impossible 
of his accomplishment and he can reach 
out into the universal currents from 
whence came all the knowledge, wisdom 
and understanding of the Universe and 
draw therefrom any special knowledge 
along any line he may desire. 

The years spent in learning the tech¬ 
nique of music; art y oratory; in the learn- 
ing of any professiony trade, business, etc., 
may all be spanned in a moment when 


92 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


man learns of his own power and how to 
use it. 

This is not accomplished by destroy¬ 
ing nor annihilating any law but by using 
the finer methods of manipulating laws 
and so rising above their physical and 
mental effects. 

The United States has achieved a repu¬ 
tation of having a greater power of accom¬ 
plishment than any other Nation in the 
world. 

This reputation has not been gained 
because Americans were inherently any 
smarter than are the people of other Na¬ 
tions but because Americans, by reason 
of their greater freedom in consciousness, 
in their thought world—have been able to 
express themselves more freely, i.e., to use 
Energy more freely, and so have unfolded 
and developed faster by reason thereof 


HOW TO CHANGE ENVIRONMENT 93 


than have the people of other Nations as 
a class. 

In order for us to better understand 
the relationship between Energy and its 
manifestations, and the control and direc¬ 
tion of these manifestations by the power 
of a consciousness created from the 
thoughts we think, let us take electricity 
as being symbolic of Energy. 

Man through the use of machinery 
created as the product of his conscious 
thought is able to use electricity to either 
create more forms or to destroy them. 

Whether or not he uses electricity to 
create or destroy is entirely within and 
under the control of his human mind. 

By moving a simple little switch in one 
direction he can start the wheels of com¬ 
merce moving across a continent and in 
the creation of new forms which will add 


94 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


to the health, wealth, joy, happiness, un- 
foldment and development of millions of 
human beings and prolong their human 
life, and then by moving this same little 
switch in the opposite direction he can 
send other millions of human beings out 
of their physical body and destroy them. 
In both cases the same electricity was used 
and the same brain or human mind con¬ 
trolled. 

We can readily see that electricity 
(Energy) was neither “good” nor “bad.” 
The human mind which directed its use 
was neither “good” nor “bad.” But the 
effects (manifestations) of the one is 
called “good,” and that of the other 
“bad.” 

We can readily see from this illustra¬ 
tion how it is that man, living in the con¬ 
sciousness of a science, philosophy, and a 


HOW TO CHANGE ENVIRONMENT 95 ‘ 


religion which is founded on the manifes¬ 
tations of Energy creates his own “good 
and bad,” or “God and Devil,” as the 
result of the effects of these manifesta¬ 
tions, but that when he learns the greater 
truth and founds his science, philosophy, 
and religion on the Energy itself he sees 
that “All is good,” and that the only way 
he can learn to express Energy harmo¬ 
niously and constructively so that its 
effects will always be good, is to de¬ 
velop or grow a consciousness of “good¬ 
ness” or harmony out of the experiences 
he obtains from his destructive use of 
Energy. 

Just as man can control the manifesta¬ 
tions of electricity (Energy) through 
machinery operated by the human mind, 
so can he control the manifestations of 
Energy in their relationship to his physi- 


96 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


cal body and environment by the power 
of his human mind. 

This power is the consciousness— 
thought habits—he creates by the 
thoughts he thinks. 

Thinking one thought for a moment 
or even a day, week or month, does not 
necessarily create a thought habit or con¬ 
sciousness, but the continued concentra¬ 
tion of thought along any particular line 
does finally create a thought habit or con¬ 
sciousness to correspond with such con¬ 
centration, and this is what is necessary 
to do. 

It has always been difficult for the un¬ 
developed soul to analyze and perceive 
the difference between the form and the 
Energy manifesting through it, and that 
is why man has built all of his science, 
philosophy and religion on the manifesto ,- 


HOW TO CHANGE ENVIRONMENT 97 


tions of Energy instead of upon Energy 
itself. 

While such souls were ready to accept 
the monism or “oneness” of a personal 
God—a God of form —they could not con¬ 
ceive of a “God of form” who possessed 
all power, all knowledge, and who was 
present everywhere, permitting the igno¬ 
rant and destructive manifestations of 
Energy which man sees on every side, 
and so such souls had to have a Devil 
created for their special purposes in order 
to have some one or something, other than 
their God of form, responsible for all the 
destructive manifestations. 

Through the destructive use of Energy 
in his desire for knowledge man igno¬ 
rantly and unconsciously begins to set 
causes in motion which takes him away 
from his Paradise (perfect condition of 


98 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


body and environment where he has an 
abundance of everything; health, wealth, 
love, friends, joy, happiness, strength, 
courage, harmony), and out into the 
world of sickness, poverty, hate, sorrow, 
weakness, fear, lack and inharmony. 

All life is a series of circles or cycles 
and this condition of lack and inharmony, 
or the state of consciousness which 'pro¬ 
duced it, does not cease at the death of 
the physical body but continues on in the 
astral world during the periods between 
incarnations. 

The result is that when the soul or astral 
form reincarnates it relates with the 
kind of a physical body and environment 
which accords with such states of con¬ 
sciousness or causes. 

We can find all grades of environment 
here in the externa] world from the 


HOW TO CHANGE ENVIRONMENT 99 


heavenly Paradise of the abundance of 
everything, to the lowest hell of lack. 

The writer of the first chapter of Gene¬ 
sis says that man was created with all 
power over everything else in the world. 

Should we blindly accept this state¬ 
ment as being true, without seeing for 
ourselves its truth as taught herein, we 
would still find man responsible for what¬ 
ever environment with which he related. 

Having learned that each life is respon¬ 
sible for its own environment and know¬ 
ing it is entirely in our own hands as to 
whether or not it is changed, we then 
come to the question of 

How can we change our environment 
so as to take us away from the hells of 
our yesterdays and make a Paradise of 
our to-days? 

We should remember that there are 


100 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


always two manifestations of Energy: 
action and reaction. 

There is also two manifestations of the 
Universal Law by which the “action and 
reaction” may be had, viz.: The Law of 
Harmony and the Law of Force, or at¬ 
traction and compulsion. 

The Law of Harmony or attraction is 
where action and reaction are mutual or 
equal. 

The Law of Force or compulsion is 
where action and reaction are not mutual 
or equal. 

“Like attracts like,” and “Like creates 
like” under both of these manifestations. 

Strikes, boycotts, sweating, profiteer¬ 
ing, any form or method of compulsion, 
either physical or mental, is using the Law 
of Force. 

To persuade, to “convert,” to hypno- 


HOW TO CHANGE ENVIRONMENT 101 


tize, or in any manner attempt to control 
the action of another is using the Law of 
Force. 

The use of the Law of Force or com¬ 
pulsion is always destructive in its effects 
no matter how constructive the motive 
back of its use may be. 

The destructive or inharmonious use of 
Energy is a part of the soul’s growth and 
unfoldment when it will not learn in any 
other way. 

In gaining knowledge, wisdom and un¬ 
derstanding through such growth and un¬ 
foldment of the soul man finally learns 
his greatest lesson which is that of Har¬ 
mony . 

He learns that the more harmonious he 
becomes in his thought habits and the con* 
sciousness created by them, the deeper 
becomes his understanding and the more 


102 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


perfect becomes his body and environ¬ 
ment. 

This result is obtained because he 
attracts it and not because he in any way 
forces or compels it . 

Man also learns that his thought habits 
and the consciousness he creates with them 
is the power with which he manipulates 
Energy . 

He learns that harmonious effects can 
only come from harmonious causes, and 
that inharmonious effects can only come 
from inharmonious causes. 

Man also learns that he can obtain the 
material things which go to make his body 
arid environment under either the Law of 
Harmony or the Law of Force as he may 
choose and that the attitude he takes 
towards such things and the use he 
makes of them will be determined solely 


HOW TO CHANGE ENVIRONMENT 103 

by the Law under which he obtained 
them. 

When this becomes a truth to him he 
then sees that in “changing his environ¬ 
ment” it is not a question of things (for 
he can obtain them under either Law) but 
a question of whether he wants a harmo¬ 
nious or inharmonious environment. That 
is the only reel question. 

Not long ago there was an account in 
the newspapers of a woman who left her 
husband because he treated her too well. 

She did not want a harmonious environ¬ 
ment so she went where she could get what 
she wanted. 

Cases occur quite frequently of women 
who love (?) their husbands because the 
latter beat them. 

Such women prefer an inharmonious 
environment and get what they want. 


104 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


History is replete with cases of men 
who love their family so well that they 
neglect it in their struggle for the means 
with which to provide their loved ones with 
all the material things money can pur¬ 
chase. 

The strain, the effort, the force, which 
such men put into their work to obtain 
money always reacts destructively (for we 
cannot use Energy destructively or under 
the Law of Force without getting the de¬ 
structive effects) until we learn the great 
lesson of our own power and so set new 
causes in motion through our constructive 
use of Energy which enables us to rise 
above the destructive effects of all our old, 
ignorant causes. 

The thousands of women all over the 
world who have gone to the war zone as 
nurses, ambulance drivers, etc., are many 


HOW TO CHANGE ENVIRONMENT 105 


times setting destructive causes in motion 
which will affect their environment in 
future incarnations through the human 
sympathy aroused by the dreadful scenes 
they witness. 

Do not get the idea that I am saying 
these women are doing either “right” or 
“wrong,” for to judge my fellow-man in 
anything he may do is not my province. 
I am simply teaching the Law underlying 
the change of environment. How any 
life shall use this law is a matter for it to 
decide, not for me. 

Desire of any kind sets causes in motion 
(action) which creates the environment 
that furnishes man the experiences by 
which he obtains knowledge (reaction). 

The “reaction” of the environment and 
the use man makes of it in time brings 
wisdom . 


106 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


Making union with it, that is, taking a 
constructive attitude towards it and so 
learning the lesson of harmony it will 
teach when man does this, brings under¬ 
standing. 

Understanding then enables man to use 
Energy consciously and intelligently in 
the creation of any kind of environment 
he desires. 

Man learns that every thought he 
thinks aids in creating thought habits or 
consciousness and that this is what con¬ 
trols his relationship with his environment. 

Each day, each hour, each minute are 
we consciously or unconsciously making, 
changing, or continuing our environment. 

No matter what we may have made it 
in the past we can begin NOW to con¬ 
sciously make it what we want for the 
future. 


HOW TO CHANGE ENVIRONMENT 107 


Has it been filled with hate? Then 
begin to fill it with kindness. 

Has it been filled with fear? Then 
begin to fill it with courage. 

Has it been filled with sickness? Then 
begin to fill it with health. 

Has it been filled with poverty? Then 
begin to fill it with wealth. 

Has it been filled with failure? Then 
begin to fill it with success? 

Has it been filled with misery? Then 
begin to fill it with happiness. 

Has it been filled with weakness ? Then 
begin to fill it with strength. 

Has it been filled with inharmony? 
Then begin to fill it with harmony. 

We can be what we will to be and 
no life is so weak and impotent but 
what it can begin to fill its thought 
world NOW with what it wants, no 


108 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


matter how weak or feeble the begin¬ 
ning may be. 

Each soul is the architect of its own 
body and environment and when it finds 
the plans of its past are faulty it can 
change them whenever it will. 

We never lack for a teacher to guide 
and direct us whenever we are ready to 
learn. 

Whenever that time arrives we are 
either led to relate with the one who can 
teach us or else our own soul gives us 
the revelation direct from the one great 
Source. 

It is never too late to begin our work 
of change, and under the Law of Har¬ 
mony we can transmute any environment 
into a Paradise. 


POWER OF PERSONALITY 


























Copyright 1919. F. W. Sears, M.P. All rights reserved. 


POWER OF PERSONALITY 
by F. W. Sears, M. P. 

We are all more or less familiar with 
the word “personality” as applied to man 
and have referred to some persons as those 
who had a strong or powerful personality, 
and to others as having a weak or self- 
effacing personality. 

Man is such a composite being that the 
average person lumps all of his character¬ 
istics into one heap and calls them his 
“personality.” 

As a matter of fact man is composed of 
as many different “personalities” as he 
has had incarnations. 

No two of these “personalities” have 
ever been exactly alike any more than two 
ill 


112 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


suits of clothes or two gowns are ever just 
exactly alike. 

Just as man’s clothing has accentuated 
his physical beauty and hidden its defects 
on the one hand, or accentuated his defects 
and hidden his physical beauty, according 
to the kind, quality and make of his cloth¬ 
ing, 

So has his Personality brought out and 
accentuated the high lights of his charac¬ 
ter and covered up the dark spots, or else 
covered up the high lights of his character 
and brought out into greater prominence 
the dark spots. 

Which it will be in any case is always 
determined by the use his Personality and 
its human mind in any incarnation makes 
of Energy. 

What is Personality? 

The dictionary says that it is: “The 


POWER OF PERSONALITY 


113 


essential character of a person as distin¬ 
guished from a thing. Existence of a 
self-conscious being. Personal qualities 
or endowments considered collectively.” 

Man is accustomed to considering man 
as being simply man, just as an automobile 
is simply an automobile. 

He does not consider that an automo¬ 
bile is composed of chassis, body, engine 
and driver. (I include the driver for with¬ 
out him the automobile is dead just as man 
is dead without his soul or astral body.) 

Neither does he consider that man is 
composed not only of the human or physi¬ 
cal body, but also of all his internal organs 
(the engine) and that “something else” 
which comes and takes possession of the 
physical body at its birth and leaves it at 
death and which man has variously called 
soul, ego, astral body, and Individuality. 


114 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


The Sears Philosophy teaches that man 
is dualistic in his oneness; that he is 
composed of two separate and distinct 
beings, viz.: the Personality and the 
Individuality, whose functions while 
similar in some respects differ greatly 
in others. 

The definition which the Sears Philoso¬ 
phy places on these two terms is as fol¬ 
lows: 

Personality is the material man whose 
home is in the material world and who 
manifests on the physical and mental 
planes only. 

Personality is the external or human 
man. 

Individuality is the ethereal man whose 
home is on the astral and other planes of 
finer material, and who manifests in the 
material world only by either incarnating 


POWER OF PERSONALITY 


115 


in or taking possession of some physical 
body. 

Individuality is the internal or divine 
man; the soul; the ego; the astral man. 

The word “divine” does not necessarily 
mean something better but rather some¬ 
thing composed of finer material, some¬ 
thing more vibrant and therefore less 
limited. 

The Individuality and Personality in 
their relationship with each other are 
something like man and the automobile. 

We may have a most perfect car in 
every respect in design, construction, 
workmanship and with the very best en¬ 
gine made, but it will not run. Why? 

Simply because it requires Energy 
manifesting in some still finer form than 
its own to be brought into combination 
with it, and until this is brought about by 


116 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


man learning to drive the car it remains 
dead, that is it will not run. 

Man’s first attempt to run a car is like 
the Individuality’s first attempt to run the 
physical body in the infancy of the latter. 

Intelligent man is just as much an in¬ 
fant in his relationship to an automobile 
when he first attempts to run one as he 
is when his Individuality attempts to run 
his physical body and Personality when 
his physical body is first born. 

The question might be asked right here 
as to how these two separate beings—the 
Personality and Individuality—get to¬ 
gether. 

We are all familiar with the first three 
dimensions of space: length, breadth and 
thickness, but few are familiar with or 
have any knowledge of the fourth and 
other dimensions. 


POWER OF PERSONALITY 


117 


This is not because we cannot all be¬ 
come familiar with the fourth and other 
dimensions but it is because we have not 
done so. 

It requires finer faculties than those of 
the purely physical and mental planes to 
contact the fourth and still finer dimen¬ 
sions of space, and the matter contained 
** therein. 

But man has developed his mentality 
while still remaining largely on the physi¬ 
cal plane of consciousness, and so can he 
develop the still finer faculties than his 
mentality with which he can cognize still 
finer worlds. 

The fourth dimension of space is what 
we may describe as the interpenetration of 
matter, that is, two different bodies oc¬ 
cupying exactly the same space at the 
same time. 


118 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


It is a well accepted truth that two dif¬ 
ferent bodies of the same or similar den¬ 
sity cannot occupy exactly the same space 
at the same time. 

But the density of one or both may be 
increased or diminished to a point where 
it becomes possible for 

Two different bodies of different den¬ 
sity to occupy exactly the same space at 
the same time. 

A simple illustration of this truth, 
which is so common that we have always 
taken it as a matter of course without 
ever dreaming of its great significance, is 
the action of sugar and water when 
brought together. 

Whichever one dominates “absorbs” 
the other without increasing the space 
occupied by the dominating one. 

Dip a lump of sugar in water and then 


POWER OF PERSONALITY 


119 


take it out and we find that the space 
occupied by the sugar is not increased 
any by the water which is added, although 
the water is diminished by just the amount 
which the sugar has “absorbed/’ 

On the other hand put a teaspoonful of 
sugar in a glass of water, stir it until fully 
dissolved or “absorbed” by the water and 
we find the same result, viz., that the 
space occupied by the water has not been 
increased any but the space occupied by 
the sugar has been diminished by just one 
teaspoonful. 

As “Nature abhors a vacuum” it is evi¬ 
dent that the space heretofore occupied by 
the water in the first instance and the 
sugar in the second one was filled with 
something else besides the water or sugar, 
and that such “something else” was of 


120 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


much finer material than either the water 
or sugar. 

Again take two drugs, both of which 
are solids, put them in a mortar, rub them 
together with a pestle and we produce a 
liquid which occupies a less space than the 
two solids did before. 

These two illustrations demonstrate 
the fact that either a vacuum which 
is absolute, perfect and complete, 
exists in space or else all space is occu¬ 
pied by two or more bodies of differ¬ 
ent density. 

Our study of physics has taught us that 
no such thing as a perfect vacuum exists 
and we can therefore conclude that the 
latter proposition is true, viz.: that all 
space is occupied by material of different 
density all of which, except a very limited 
amount, vibrates at a rate which our 


POWER OP PERSONALITY 


121 


physical and mental faculties are not able 
to discern. 

We know that at the period called birth 
something comes and takes possession of 
the physical body and remains with it until 
the period we call death. 

When this something does not take 
possession of the physical body at birth 
we have what is called a “still birth,” or a 
dead baby. 

This something is the astral body, ego, 
soul, or Individuality, call it what we 
may. 

The relationship between the physical 
and astral bodies is similar to that between 
the automobile and driver. 

The automobile will not run without the 
driver, and neither will the physical body 
run without the astral body. 

The physical and astral bodies are both 


122 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


composed of the same original substance 
but they vibrate at different rates of 
motion and this makes the difference in 
their density. 

The smallest particle into which science 
has been able to divide matter is called the 
electron. 

Electrons form atoms, atoms form 
molecules, and molecules form the myriad 
different kinds of matter in the mineral, 
vegetable, animal and human kingdoms as 
well as matter on the unseen side of life. 

Each form from the electron on up the 
scale to the largest form of matter is a 
separate vehicle through which Energy 
and intelligence manifest. 

Each form gives off an essence, vibra¬ 
tion, or atmosphere which is peculiar to 
itself and from which is formed the Mas¬ 
ter Mind of the combination. 


POWER OF PERSONALITY 


123 


Man’s intellect or human mind mani¬ 
festing through his physical brain is the 
Master Mind of the human body. 

Each atom of man’s body is stamped 
with the combined consciousness and in¬ 
telligence imparted to it by his parents. 

That is how children partake of or in¬ 
herit their parents physical and mental 
characteristics or their personality. 

The physical body, its characteristics 
and mentality are the only thing man 
“inherits” from the parents of his body. 

The astral body, soul, or Individuality 
incarnates in that particular human body 
as the result of the causes it set in motion 
in former incarnations and for no other 
reason. 

Were this not so then this would be a 
world of accident, chance, or luck instead 
of being a world governed by universal 


124 SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 

laws which are unchangeable and immut¬ 
able. 

The Individuality is composed of the 
essence of all knowledge, wisdom and un¬ 
derstanding it has gained in all of the 
Personalities in which it has incarnated 
through all the ages past and gone. 

The Individuality knows all of its for¬ 
mer incarnations and reveals them to the 
human mind of the Personality whenever 
the union between the two is sufficiently 
harmonious for the latter to understand 
and interpret the message of the former. 

The object of the Individuality in incar¬ 
nating in human form is two-fold: 

First.—To gain experience and there¬ 
fore knowledge, wisdom and understand¬ 
ing of life through expressing its desires 
in matter, and 

Second.—To aid in refining and trans- 


POWER OF PERSONALITY 


125 


muting matter from a lesser to a greater 
vehicle. 

In studying the characteristics of the 
Personality and Individuality we find that 
while similar in manifestation they are op¬ 
posite in expression. 

The four principal characteristics of the 
Personality are: 

Aggrandizement of the human self or 
personal I. 

Attaining power through manipulating 
form (people and things) by force. 

Purely material although sometimes 
claiming great spirituality. 

Limited by form, ceremony, conven¬ 
tionalities, precedent. 

The aggrandizement of the human self 
or the personal I calls for the creation of 
some still greater power as “authority,” 
and it was from such a consciousness th^t 


126 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


the personal God was born, created in the 
image and likeness of its progenitor but 
with superhuman power and ability to use 
force. 

The obtaining of power through man¬ 
ipulating form (people and things) by 
force requires the enslavement of man by 
the superior force. 

This results in man worshiping such 
superior force and making an idol of it, 
whether such superior force be called God, 
Saviour, King, Emperor, Pope, or some 
leader in the financial, business, profes¬ 
sional, political, social or artistic world. 

The Personality is always a materialist 
because being purely of physical and men¬ 
tal origin it has never lived before and 
never will again in its particular form. It 
therefore of itself cannot perceive of any 
other world or plane of consciousness 


POWER OF PERSONALITY 


127 


except the physical and mental ones with 
which it is familiar. 

The Personality is always limited by 
form, ceremony, conventionalities, prece¬ 
dent, because its consciousness is limited 
to the physical and mental planes which in 
turn are limited by the material forms of 
the first three dimensions of space and 
cannot comprehend the other dimensions 
which are finer than these. 

The characteristics of the Individuality 
are opposite in their expression to those of 
the Personality. 

There is no self-aggrandizement of the 
Individuality. 

This attitude is not to be confounded 
with the negativeness of the Personality 
which begins to manifest after incarna¬ 
tions of self-aggrandizement. 

There is no self-aggrandizement of the 


128 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


Individuality and neither is there any 
belittlement or self-abasement. 

There is a recognition of its own God- 
hood, the oneness of all life, and that the 
human body is only one of many vehicles 
through which Energy manifests. 

How perfect a vehicle it becomes for 
such manifestation is dependent solely on 
how harmonious and constructive is the 
union between the Personality and Indi¬ 
viduality. 

The Individuality recognizes that real 
power can only be obtained by the Law 
of Harmonious Attraction through the 
manipulation of Energy rather than form 
(people and things). 

The Individuality recognizes the planes 
of consciousness and the dimensions of 
space beyond the first three of the ma¬ 
terial world, their finer matter and the 


POWER OF PERSONALITY 


129 


finer methods necessary to relate with 
them. 

The Individuality is limitless, relatively 
speaking, as compared with the Person¬ 
ality because of its bigger vision, greater 
illumination and deeper understanding of 
finer methods. 

The Personality sees itself as the power 
which controls and manipulates force 
rather than as the vehicle through which 
it is used. 

The Personality is like an automobile 
without a driver or with an inexperienced 
one. The latter causes no more wrecks 
to the car nor damage to its engine and 
equipment than does the Personality cause 
to the physical body and its environment. 

In fact one is much safer in an auto¬ 
mobile with an inexperienced driver 
than he is following the guidance of 


130 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


one who only lives in the power of 
his Personality to the exclusion of the 
Individuality. 

Personality controls in all cases of 
anger, hate, worry, fear, anxiety, condem¬ 
nation, criticism, “righteous indignation,” 
jealousy, envy, self-pity, self-abasement, 
self-effacement, and all other destructive 
thought emotions. 

It is the Personality which is the 
hypnotizer and the hyptonized, for it 
knows no other law than that of 
force or compulsion of some kind or 
form. 

The Personality is influenced and con¬ 
trolled by its cell consciousness. This is 
evidenced by the effect an anaesthetic has 
on the physical body. 

Personal magnetism is a purely physi¬ 
cal vibration of the atoms of the body plus 


POWER OF PERSONALITY 


131 


the mentality of the human mind. It is 
strong or weak according to the mental 
power exercised back of it. 

In the Individuality this same vibration 
is raised to an entirely different plane of 
consciousness and instead of drawing peo¬ 
ple and things to it as does the Person¬ 
ality, like a magnet draws the steel even 
against the latter’s will, it attracts people 
and things because they want to come and 
not because the Individuality makes them 
come. 

The attraction is mutual because of an 
innate recognition of their oneness, while 
with the Personality it is one-sided be¬ 
cause of a recognition of their separate¬ 
ness. 

The consciousness formed from the 
traits of character and habits of the Per¬ 
sonality is transmitted to the Individuality 


132 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


and so carried over from incarnation to 
incarnation and is either accentuated or 
displaced according to the use the Person¬ 
ality of each incarnation makes of Energy. 

The strongest of these characteristics 
persist and cause astral body, soul, or ego 
to incarnate in such physical body and en¬ 
vironment as will enable it to intensify 
or transmute these characteristics accord¬ 
ing to the real want of the soul. 

A case came under my notice some time 
since which illustrates how strong some of 
these habits and characteristics become. 

This case was that of a baby less than 
a year old which would not stop crying 
unless given a lighted cigar and allowed 
to smoke. 

We all know of families where there is 
the greatest harmony and love between 
all its members; also of other families 


POWER OF PERSONALITY 


133 


where there is the greatest hate and in¬ 
harmony. 

This condition is not the result of acci¬ 
dent, chance, or luck, but comes as the 
effect of natural law in each case, the 
effect of the causes the members of each 
family had set in motion in former incar¬ 
nations. 

Is love or hate the real want of the 
soul? 

Then we incarnate in a family and 
environment which will produce the de¬ 
sired result, and we remain in such fam¬ 
ilies and environments incarnation after 
incarnation until we have had enough of it. 

“The cure of the thing is in the thing 
itself,” we have been told and no truer 
saying has ever been formulated. 

Is place, power and position the real 
want? 


134 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


Is wealth, health, love the real want? 

Is an easy life with no cares nor respon¬ 
sibilities, or an active life the all compell¬ 
ing desire? 

Is the highest, best and most harmo¬ 
nious and most constructive expression of 
life the soul’s desire? 

Our life in each incarnation is deter¬ 
mined by the influence wielded by the 
Personality and Individuality. Which 
dominates? 

All of our experiences are only steps 
on our pathway towards the perfect union 
between them which is the ultimate desire 
of the soul. 

The power of Personality in its sepa¬ 
rateness or undeveloped stage is force; 
physical, mental or both. 

It remains force and continues to make 
for separation instead of union as long as 


POWER OF PERSONALITY 


135 


man continues to limit himself in his con¬ 
sciousness to the physical and mental 
planes. 

What then is the remedy for this igno¬ 
rant and undeveloped condition of man? 

What must man do to lift himself out 
of these lesser and limited planes of con¬ 
sciousness into the larger and more un¬ 
limited ones? 

What are the finer methods he must use 
in order to accomplish this result? 

Our first step is to realize that it is not 
the act or the thing itself but the con¬ 
sciousness back of it which determines 
whether its effect is that which we call 
“good” or “bad.” 

The next step is to organize in our con¬ 
sciousness a working union between our 
Personality and Individuality. 

Begin the creation of a consciousness 


136 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


and thought habit of harmony so that this 
new consciousness and thought habit of 
harmony will underlie and color every 
thought which comes to us with its har¬ 
mony instead of with its old inharmony. 

See the good, the harmonious, the con¬ 
structive side of everything, instead of the 
inharmonious and destructive side. 

Believe in and begin to grow larger, 
greater, bigger and more harmonious 
ideals of all kinds. 

Believe in the possibility of material¬ 
izing them ourselves as well as by others. 

Cease the building of idols by ceasing 
to worship ideals . 

One of the greatest weaknesses of the 
Personality is the worshiping of ideals 
and so making idols of them. 

It is constructive to live in the con¬ 
sciousness of our oneness with our ideals 


POWER OF PERSONALITY 


137 


and so make them real to us here in the 
material world. 

But when we live in the consciousness 
of our separation from them we uncon¬ 
sciously turn them into idols to be wor¬ 
shiped but never attained. 

This is why the Personality, when it 
begins to grow, must first have a personal 
God, a God of form to worship and adore, 
and because of this fact we should never 
attempt to convert such a person. When 
he is ready for a greater conception of 
God he will convert himself and never 
before. 

We have a perfect right and it is always 
constructive to teach those who want to 
learn but should always do so with a con¬ 
sciousness free from any desire to force 
the bigger Truth upon them. 

We should learn to remove each day 


138 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


from our consciousness some of the old 
debris, some of the mental limitations, 
which have been binding and enslaving us. 

Our ultimate destiny here in the ma¬ 
terial world is for our Personality to be¬ 
come the greatest vehicle possible through 
which the Individuality may express. 

This can only be accomplished through 
their complete and harmonious union in 
consciousness. 

This is what the man Jesus meant when 
he said “My Father in me and I in him.” 

That is “My Individuality in my Per¬ 
sonality and my Personality in my Indi¬ 
viduality.” One perfect and complete 
union between them. 

“The Father’s will is my will and my 
will the Father’s” is only another way of 
stating this same truth. 

The Individuality’s will is the Person- 


POWER OF PERSONALITY 


139 


ality’s will, and the Personality’s will is 
the Individuality’s will.” No separation 
in consciousness between them. 

It does not mean that our personal will 
is to be made subordinate to the will of 
some superior being outside of and sepa¬ 
rate and distinct from us. 

This latter interpretation is only the 
small, narrow, limited conception of the 
Personality which cannot see nor under¬ 
stand the larger interpretation of the 
Individuality. 

“I and my Father are one,” is still 
another way of stating this same truth. 

“My Personality and Individuality are 
one” is the larger conception which comes 
from the deeper understanding. 

This union between the Personality and 
Individuality begins externally at birth 
with the union of the physical and astral 


140 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


bodies but it is not to stop there; it is to 
be made internal, in the consciousness of 
both. 

There is to be no separation anywhere 
between the Personality and Individu¬ 
ality; they are to be interchangeable, in- 
terpenetrable; a perfect union in every 
way. 

The real Power of the Personality lies 
in this perfect and complete union. 

When this is accomplished nothing is 
impossible for such a life; nothing can cir¬ 
cumvent it; nothing overpower it. 

We become in truth masters of our own 
destiny and have power over everything 
in the material world. 


SELFISHNESS—HUMAN AND 

DIVINE 



Copyright 1919. F. W. Sears, M.P. All rights reserved. 


SELFISHNESS—HUMAN AND 
DIVINE 

by F. W. Sears, M. P. 

We are all familiar with the father who 
slaves and toils that his wife and children 
may have the comforts and pleasures he 
denies to himself. 

We know too the mother who works 
and scrimps and saves in every conceiv¬ 
able way, not only denying herself the 
comforts and pleasures of life but oft- 
times the necessities, and even sacrifices 
her health that her son may go to college 
or her daughter be a lady. 

We have heard of the son, whose father 
failed in business and lost his health, who 
gave up his college and future career, 
came home and went to work in order that 


143 


144 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


he might be with his parents to care and 
comfort them in their sickness and misery. 

We are not unfamiliar with the daugh¬ 
ter who sacrifices herself by giving up her 
opportunity for an education in order that 
her younger sister might profit thereby, 
or that the money necessary for it might 
go to the purchase of that which would 
make the life of an invalid mother easier. 

The fireman who in the discharge of his 
duty enters a burning building and at the 
risk of his own life saves that of a perfect 
stranger is too well known to be omitted 
from our list. 

The policeman who stops a runaway 
horse, or who captures a thief or murderer 
at the risk of his life has always been the 
object of our admiration. 

The coast guards who brave the stormy 
waves in all kinds of weather and perform 


SELFISHNESS—HUMAN AND DIVINE 145 


a most wonderful service in the saving of 
human life at the risk of their own have 
been made known to us in both song and 
story, no matter how far from the shores 
of the sea we may have lived. 

The many heroic deeds of our own 
brave soldier boys who “went over the 
top” and gave their all to “make the world 
safe for democracy” have been recounted 
to us from time to time and aroused 
in us not only our admiration but our 
full appreciation of the great work 
they did. 

The early Christians who were fed to 
the wild beasts in the arena by their 
pagan masters of Rome because they 
would not give up their conception of 
God; 

The martyrs of later ages who felt the 
caressing touches of the Spanish inquisi- 


146 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


tion or fed the flames at the stake at the 
behest of the authorities of the Roman 
Catholic Church because they refused to 
subscribe to its tenets and authority ; 

The more than a million of Armenians 
who died during the recent war because 
they refused to accept Allah as their God; 

The martyrs in all ages who have sac¬ 
rificed themselves for a principle. 

All these and millions of other heroic 
deeds of unselfish sacrifice both in peace 
and war which have been repeated over 
and over again in various ways a multi¬ 
tude of times by countless souls since time 
began and have excited our admiration 
and commendation. 

All these great and wonderful deeds of 
heroism and self-sacrifice have been pro¬ 
claimed by man as the acme of human 
unselfishness. 


SELFISHNESS—HUMAN AND DIVINE 147 


And so they are when viewed only from 
the human or mental plane of conscious¬ 
ness. 

Then there is what is called the world’s 
supreme sacrifice and its most illustrious 
example of unselfishness, according to 
Christian teaching, the giving up of his 
human life by Jesus “the only son of the 
living God” that the world might be saved 
from its sins. 

Accepting for the moment the truth of 
the story of Jesus in the Garden of Geth- 
semane and his crucifixion, and the inter¬ 
pretation which the Christian church has 
placed upon it, this question might well 
be asked: 

Was the giving up of his human life 
by Jesus “the only son of the living God” 
in order that the world might be saved 
from its sins as great a sacrifice and as 


148 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


unselfish a manifestation as the Church 
has claimed? 

Is there any one among you who read 
this who would not willingly suffer him¬ 
self to be crucified was he sure of such a 
reward coming to him as that the Church 
claims for Jesus, viz.: “A seat on the great 
white throne at the right hand of God, 
ruling heaven jointly with God and re¬ 
ceiving the praises and blessings of all 
their followers throughout all eternity?” 

Is there any one among you who 
would not willingly suffer himself to be 
crucified was he sure that by such act he 
could save all of mankind to-day, let 
alone those who might be born in the 
future, from all the sorrow, pain, suffer¬ 
ing, misery of their sins, even though you 
yourself had no chance to occupy a seat 
“on the great white throne and at the right 


SELFISHNESS—HUMAN AND DIVINE 149 


hand of God,” and your only reward was 
an ignominious death and a consciousness 
of its being a “blessed privilege” to give 
your life for such a cause? 

Is there a one of you who could he save 
the world from all its pain, suffering, sor¬ 
row, misery, degradation, anguish, sick¬ 
ness, poverty, hate, envy, jealousy, anger, 
fear, slavery, and all the rest of its sins, by 
the giving up of a suit of clothes or a 
dress you had worn for years would not 
willingly and gladly do so? 

That is in reality all that Jesus did. 

As “the only son of the living God” 
Jesus had full knowledge of his future. 

He knew that his human body was only 
an outer covering for his soul or astral 
body, just as your suit of clothes or dress 
is only an outer covering for your human 
body. 


150 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


He knew , according to Christian teach¬ 
ing, that immediately after his crucifixion 
he would ascend to heaven and occupy a 
seat on the great white throne at the right 
hand side of God and forever afterwards, 
throughout all eternity, receive the bless¬ 
ings and praises of those whom he had 
saved. 

He knew, according to Christian teach¬ 
ing, that with the crucifixion of his human 
body his period of pain and suffering was 
forever over and that for all eternity there 
would only be the greatest joy and happi¬ 
ness for him. 

He knew all this at the time he went 
to the Garden of Gethsemane, according 
to Christian teaching, and yet he spent 
hours there in sorrow and misery, praying 
to God that “this cup might pass from 


SELFISHNESS—HUMAN AND DIVINE 151 


Compare the history of Jesus and the 
interpretation thereof, as taught by the 
Christian Church, with that of our soldier 
boys who perished on the battlefields of 
France. 

Each one gave up home, country, 
friends, family, loved ones, his all , not just 
simply his human life but every hope, am¬ 
bition, every aim in life, his all , that the 
world might be saved from its sins. 

Each one gave up his all without ask¬ 
ing even that “this cup might pass from 
him.” 

Each one gave up his all without know¬ 
ing , as did Jesus, what the future had in 
store for him or even whether there was 
any future or only oblivion for him. 

Which was the greater sacrifice? 

Which was the greater manifestation of 
unselfishness? 


152 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


And what are some of the sins of the 
world for which man has given up his life 
in all the ages past and gone? 

Autocracy, militarism, anger, hate, con¬ 
demnation, criticism, envy, jealousy, 
righteous indignation, fear, worry, anx¬ 
iety, self-pity, human sympathy, resent¬ 
ment, resistance; everything that is sym¬ 
bolical of the Law of Force. 

It is this ignorant and undeveloped 
consciousness in man which has caused him 
to commit all of the so-called sins, and 
it was to save the world from the effects 
of these sins that the United States en¬ 
tered the great world war and our brave 
boys gave up their human lives. 

Every martyr, every human soul, that 
has ever given up its human life for some 
great ideal has sacrificed it that the world 
might be saved from its sins (which are 


SELFISHNESS—HUMAN AND DIVINE 153 


the lesser ideals) and so shown its great 
human unselfishness. 

But why be a martyr? 

Why be crucified? 

Why be sacrificed? 

Why not live for our ideals instead of 
dying for them? 

Why not live and make our ideals real? 

Why not live and teach the world how 
to save itself from its sins instead of lay¬ 
ing down this body of flesh in death and 
so deprive the world of our services? 

The reason man has not done this in 
the past is because human selfishness finds 
greater glory in being a martyr, in being 
sacrificed, in being crucified. 

There is not nearly as much glory in 
living as in dying. 

It is only after we are dead that our 
grave is bedecked with flowers and our 


154 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


virtues proclaimed by the world in both 
song and story. 

It is so easy to die and end our human 
suffering and so hard to live and endure 
or rise above its effects. 

Only the life which is firmly anchored 
in its consciousness of the Law of Har¬ 
mony and by which it has been able to 
transcend the human selfishness and come 
into its oneness with the divine selfishness, 
finds itself able to refuse the alluring 
temptation to become a martyr to its prin¬ 
ciples and offer itself up as a sacrifice and 
a vicarious atonement for the world’s sins. 

Such a life refuses to permit the world 
to crucify it for it knows that every such 
crucifixion only retards the world’s prog¬ 
ress just that much and that the salvation 
of the world depends upon our living, not 
upon our dying . 


SELFISHNESS—HUMAN AND DIVINE 155 


Human man with his human selfishness 
wants to leave a name which will be glori¬ 
fied by future generations. 

He wants to be remembered for the 
deeds which will win the world’s appro¬ 
bation. 

He wants to leave behind him a repu¬ 
tation which the world will praise, applaud 
and point to as that to be followed. 

The character back of that reputation is 
only of secondary importance to him. 

What reward does the father, mother, 
son, daughter, Fireman, Policeman, Coast 
Guard, Soldier, Martyr, Saviour receive 
here and now? 

“None except the reputation of doing 
good, the consciousness of having per¬ 
formed his duty, and the belief he will go 
to heaven,” you say. 

In your answer lies the secret of the 


156 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


human selfishness rather than the unsel¬ 
fishness. 

Each does the thing which gives him the 
greatest degree of satisfaction under the 
existing circumstances and conditions. 

What is selfishness? 

The dictionary says that selfishness is 
“Caring only for self; influenced solely or 
chiefly by motive of personal or private 
pleasure or advantage.” 

It further says that unselfishness is the 
“Caring for others; generous; the opposite 
of selfishness.” 

An analysis of the definition of these 
two words shows us that unselfishness is 
the “opposite of selfishness” only in the 
external action, and has no reference to 
the consciousness or thought back of the 
act. 

Why do we “care for others?” 


SELFISHNESS—HUMAN AND DIVINE 157 


Simply because we derive greater pleas¬ 
ure in so doing than we do in caring for 
ourselves. 

Why are we “generous?” 

Simply because it gives us greater 
pleasure to be generous than it does not 
to be. 

It is self-evident then that in the last 
analysis there is no such a thing as “un¬ 
selfishness.” 

All so-called “unselfishness” is only a 
manifestation of some form of selfish¬ 
ness. 

What then is the difference between the 
selfish person and the so-called unselfish 
one? 

The selfish person expresses himself . 

The so-called unselfish one represses 
himself and expresses some one else . 

According to the Christian teaching 


158 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


Jesus repressed himself and expressed 
God’s will in the crucifixion. He said: 
“Thy will not mine be done.” 

There is no such thing as unselfishness, 
but there are 

Two kinds of selfishness: Human and 
Divine. 

That which makes the difference be¬ 
tween them is not the act itself but the 
consciousness and thought habit back of 
the act. 

Human selfishness is backed by the con¬ 
sciousness which looks first for results. 

“What will people say or think?” is its 
first question. 

Its actions are always based on policy; 
it gives all power to the act itself and none 
to the consciousness or thought which in¬ 
spired the act. 

Divine selfishness is backed by the con- 


SELFISHNESS—HUMAN AND DIVINE 159 

sciousness which bases its action on 
principle. 

It never takes into consideration what 
people may say or think. 

Its only concern is to “Let that which 
it does be done only because it is the high¬ 
est, best and greatest thing it knows how 
to do,” and so develops a consciousness 
and thought habit which will enable it to 
constantly grow and unfold a better and 
still better “know how.” 

Human selfishness makes a martyr of 
itself, sacrifices and crucifies itself in order 
that it may “save the world from its sins” 
in its own particular way which it thinks 
and claims is the only way. 

Divine selfishness knows that no soul is 
ever lost and therefore no soul is ever 
“saved,” but that each soul has a right to 
learn its lessons in its way even though 


160 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


its way may take it down into the very 
depths of hell. 

Divine selfishness never becomes a mar¬ 
tyr to its truths, neither does it ever sac¬ 
rifice or crucify itself but instead it turns 
each opportunity to do these tilings into 
a “blessed privilege” and so finds that the 
martyrdom, the sacrifice, the crucifixion is 
neither necessary nor required. 

The father, mother, son, daughter, fire¬ 
man, policeman, coast guard, martyr, 
saviour who do for others either because 
of duty or of blood ties are all humanly 
selfish in their so-called unselfishness. 

Those who do these same things as a 
(( hlessed privilege” are divinely selfish in 
their so-called unselfishness. 

Again would I emphasize the great 
truth that it is not the act but the con¬ 
sciousness and thought habit back of the 


SELFISHNESS—HUMAN AND DIVINE 161 


act which determines its quality or effect. 

Divine selfishness has a conscious or un¬ 
conscious recognition of the oneness of all 
life . 

Whatever it does it does solely with 
the consciousness of its being a “blessed 
privilege.” 

Have you read and did you absorb the 
incident referred to in my book on 
“Everyday Experiences” under the title 
of “Blessed Privilege?” You should do 
so at once. 

The attitude of the United States in the 
great world war as compared with that 
of other nations illustrates the difference 
between human and divine selfishness. 

The United States entered the war 
solely to aid in freeing the world from au¬ 
tocracy, the symbol of the Law of Force. 
It asked no reward of any kind, not even 


162 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


to be reimbursed for its expenses or the 
injury its citizens sustained. 

The ideal of Germany under the Kaiser 
was: All for the State. The State in such 
cases means the ruling power. That those 
who govern are the masters. The people 
are subordinate to and the slaves of the 
State. This is autocracy, the rule of the 
Law of Force and is humanly selfish. 

The ideal of the United States is: All 
for the people. The people are the mas¬ 
ters and the State, or those who officially 
conduct the business of the State, are the 
servants of and subordinate to the people. 
This is Democracy, the rule of the Law of 
Harmonious Attraction and is divinely 
selfish. 

The ideal of every religious creed and 
dogma throughout all the ages has been 
and still is: All for God. The people are 


SELFISHNESS—HUMAN AND DIVINE 163 


subordinate to and the slaves of God the 
master. 

In the religious world God, the auto¬ 
crat, takes the place of State, the autocrat 
in the political world. 

All our religions, without a single ex¬ 
ception, have been and still are humanly 
selfish. 

Under these limited ideals of both the 
religious and secular worlds man has 
grown a consciousness of slavery to his 
ideals, worshiped them and so uncon¬ 
sciously made idols of them. 

The Sears Philosophy ideal is: All for 
human beings; the people. God—the 
great Universal Law—the servant, not 
the master, of mankind. This is democ¬ 
racy and is divinely selfish. 

This conception of God being the ser¬ 
vant to instead of the master of mankind 


164 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


is so new and revolutionary you may not 
accept it at once as being a great truth. 

But whether you do or not is for you to 
determine, not me. 

The man Jesus said: “If I be lifted up 
I draw all men unto me.” 

What does this mean? 

Was Jesus a God? Then it could not 
have reference to the God in him being 
“lifted up,” and must have referred to the 
human man. 

Why should the “human man” be 
lifted up? 

In order that it might become a better 
vehicle through which God or Energy 
might manifest here in the material world 
and so aid others in becoming better 
vehicles. 

Is the principle or law underlying this 
interpretation a reasonable and logical one 


SELFISHNESS—HUMAN AND DIVINE 165 


and does it apply to all things as well as 
to the case in question? 

Supposing a piano should say “If I be 
lifted up,” that is made a more perfect 
and harmonious instrument, “I will draw 
all men unto me” through the increased 
melody and harmony I will be able to ex¬ 
press through the perfect artist, the God, 
which uses me? 

Wouldn’t such a statement be true? and 
isn’t it true that the more perfect we make 
any material vehicle whether human body, 
piano, machine, painting, or what not, the 
more harmonious is the expression of 
Energy which can be obtained through it. 

Not which always is but which can be. 

We must get away from our old idol 
of a personal God of form before we can 
begin to understand the full import of this 
great and wonderful truth. 


166 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


Which is the bigger, the greater, the 
more harmonious and constructive ideal? 
The one which the religions of the world 
have given us of God the master with 
man the slave, or duty and its human sel¬ 
fishness, or the ideal of the Sears Phil¬ 
osophy with man the master and God— 
not a being of form but the great Uni¬ 
versal Law—the servant, and the con¬ 
sciousness of a “blessed privilege” with its 
divine selfishness? 

“Choose ye this day whom ye shall 
serve?” It is for each one of you to make 
your choice, not me. 

Selfishness is a natural part of man 
which he has brought along with him 
through all his evolutionary unfoldment. 

Selfishness is man’s manifestation of 
the animal instinct described as the “sur¬ 
vival of the fittest.” 


SELFISHNESS—HUMAN AND DIVINE 167 


Whether its effects are constructive or 
destructive in our life is determined by 
our attitude in making it human or divine. 

Our work is to turn all of our selfish¬ 
ness inward, not outward, and develop a 
consciousness and thought habit of such 
great harmony that it will make of our 
human self the most constructive instru¬ 
ment possible through which the universal 
Energy may manifest, and in so doing we 
will transmute the human selfishness into 
the divine. 

The martyrdom of self, the sacrificing 
and crucifying of self will be transmuted 
by the blessed privilege which lifts up the 
self to where it recognizes its own God- 
hood and place here as a vehicle through 
which the God manifests. 



MAKING THE NEXT WORLD 
SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY 







Copyright 1919. F. W. Seaes, M.P. All rights reserved. 


MAKING THE NEXT WORLD 
SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY 

by F. W. Sears, M. P. 

We have heard a great deal during the 
past year about “Making this World Safe 
for Democracy,” but how about “Making 
the Next World Safe for Democracy ?” 

“We are a short time here and a long 
time there” the world has said, so why 
shouldn’t “democracy” be equally as good 
a thing for the next world as its advocates 
claim it to be for this world? 

What is meant by the phrase “Making 
this world safe for democracy?” 

We must understand this first before 
we can begin to realize the true import of 
our subject. 

Let us understand right at the begin- 
171 


172 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


ning that we have no reference to the 
political party here in the United States 
which is known as the “Democratic 
Party,” but that the word “democracy” 
is used in its ethical sense only. 

The dictionary says that “democracy” 
means: “A state or civil body in which 
the people themselves exercise all legisla¬ 
tive authority, and confer all executive 
and judicial powers either by direct col¬ 
lective action or through elected represen¬ 
tatives. Political and social equality in 
general. A state of society in which no 
heredity differences of rank or privilege 
are recognized. The opposite of aristoc¬ 
racy.” 

To put this definition more briefly into 
our own language we would say then that 
“democracy means a condition of equal¬ 
ity between all mankind in so far as 


MAKING THE NEXT WORLD SAFE 173 


opportunity, privilege or power is con¬ 
cerned.” 

In order to get the full import of this 
definition we must know what the other 
words associated with but opposite to 
democracy mean, such as aristocracy, plu¬ 
tocracy, autocracy. 

Briefly, the following is a summary of 
their meaning: 

Aristocracy means class privilege and 
control by those who claim superiority 
over others either by reason of their birth, 
wealth, education, or the bestowal of some 
title upon them by this privileged class. 

Plutocracy means special privilege and 
control over others by the wealthy class 
because of their wealth. 

Autocracy means unlimited power and 
authority given to or assumed by one 
man by reason of his alleged superiority 


174 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


over others by reason of his birth, his 
power to use force to obtain such recog¬ 
nition, or the bestowal of it upon him by 
others. 

Saul was made the first king of Israel 
because “he was head and shoulders above 
all the rest of Israel.” 

Saul’s selection as king symbolizes auto¬ 
cratic power obtained by physical 
strength. 

David was made the second king of 
Israel because he, a stripling, weak and 
impotent physically, slew the giant Go¬ 
liath with a pebble in a sling. 

David’s selection symbolizes the auto¬ 
cratic power obtained by the use of mind, 
intelligence, over pure physical strength. 

Under autocracy the governing officials, 
that is the aristocracy or plutocracy, com¬ 
pose the State and are the masters of the 


MAKING THE NEXT WORLD SAFE 175 


people who are looked upon only as so 
many pawns on the chess board of life for 
the use of the autocracy. 

Autocracy, plutocracy and aristocracy 
base their claims to power entirely upon 
their alleged superiority, claiming that the 
masses are not qualified to think or act for 
themselves but are like ignorant and irre¬ 
sponsible children who need some one to 
manage them. 

They are right in this claim for the 
masses are not qualified either to think or 
act for themselves, otherwise they would 
not have permitted autocracy to continue 
to do their thinking for them politically, 
religiously, or in any other way all these 
centuries past and gone. 

It is true that the masses are not quali¬ 
fied to govern themselves, neither is a six 
months old baby qualified to walk but the 


176 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


fact remains that the baby can learn to 
walk and does learn to walk when we teach 
it and give it the opportunity to learn . 

It may fall and hurt itself severely 
many times in the process of learning to 
walk but by persistent and continuous 
practice it finally does learn and is just 
as able to walk as is the most expert 
walker. 

So with the masses. They can learn 
how to govern themselves when they have 
the real want to learn how to think and 
act for themselves. 

The weak spot in autocracy’s claim is 
that it is never willing either to teach the 
masses or give them the opportunity to 
learn. 

It is said that under the autocratic gov¬ 
ernment of the Czar of Russia over 90 per 
cent of the people were illiterate. 


MAKING THE NEXT WORLD SAFE 177 


They not only could neither read nor 
write but they knew absolutely nothing 
about self government for no attempt had 
ever been made to enlighten them by 
autocracy. 

It is no wonder that in their first at¬ 
tempts to exercise their new found free¬ 
dom from autocratic rule they should in¬ 
dulge in many of the murderous and de¬ 
structive practices of autocracy. 

They had no other example before them 
than that which had been given to them 
by autocracy. 

What right has the world to expect any¬ 
thing better from them at the start than 
from their teachers? 

How can the masses ever learn to 
govern themselves unless they make the 
attempt and continue their practicing 
at it no matter how crude, appalling 


178 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


and destructive the results may be at 
first? 

“The cure of the thing is in the thing 
itself,” and some day, out of all the 
horrors of her early attempts at self-gov¬ 
ernment there will rise up in Russia a new 
world, wonderful and glorious in its new 
found freedom, for it will have learned its 
lesson in going through these days of its 
hell and will know that freedom is not 
license but rather the growth of a con- 
consciousness BIG enough to understand 
and live life harmoniously and construc¬ 
tively. 

The ideals of autocracy are that the 
people are made for the State, the ruling 
classes, to be exploited and ruled as slaves. 

Under democracy the people control the 
State and the officers thereof are the ser¬ 
vants of the people. 


MAKING THE NEXT WORLD SAFE 179 


Not the slaves of the people, nor yet 
their masters. Not even their rulers, but 
their servants. 

The ideals of democracy are “All for 
the people;” the State being secondary to 
the people and only of value as it helps 
the people to grow and unfold in their 
peaceful development. 

Under plutocracy wealth controls no 
matter whether form of government is an 
aristocracy or democracy, such control 
being made through the bribery of the 
officials in some form, and these officials 
for the time being at least, become auto¬ 
crats. 

We want to remember that it is possible 
to turn a democracy into an autocracy, or 
an autocracy into a democracy, and that 
the former is sometimes more easily ac¬ 
complished than is the latter. 


180 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


The keynote to autocracy, plutocracy 
and aristocracy is special privileges to the 
few; separation of people into classes ac¬ 
cording to wealth, social position and 
birth. 

The keynote to democracy is equality of 
power, privilege, opportunity, inherent 
ability, and the union of the people 
through their increased development and 
unfoldment. 

“All men are born free and equal” is 
the ideal that was blazoned to the world 
by the greatest political democracy the 
world has ever known—the United States 
of America. 

This does not mean that all men will 
use this inherent freedom and equality 
along the same lines nor in the same de¬ 
gree, but it does mean that all possess the 
power to do so. 


MAKING THE NEXT WORLD SAFE 181 


For instance we all possess equal power 
to develop the muscles of our arm but we 
may not all use this power equally either 
in the amount used or in the harmonious 
or inharmonious manner used. 

It is these two factors which makes the 
difference in the development of the 
muscles of our arms. 

Two persons might even use their 
power to develop their muscles equally 
but one use this power backed up by an 
inharmonious consciousness and thought 
habit while the other had a harmonious 
one. 

The results which would accrue would 
be very materially different in these two 
cases. 

The former would develop muscles 
which would be ugly and uncouth to 
look at and which would ultimately give 


182 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


way when put to some extra severe 
test. 

The latter would develop muscles 
which would be beautiful and harmonious 
to the eye and would be able to stand up 
under the most severe test. 

Yet each had equal power and ability. 
They simply used it differently . 

This same thing is true with every other 
attribute and faculty possessed by man. 

The only thing which makes the differ¬ 
ence between men is simply the use they 
make of their power for it is a truth that 
“All men are born free and equal.” 

Democracy then is symbolical with free¬ 
dom and equality. 

Every thinking man in the world to-day 
is a believer in and an advocate of de¬ 
mocracy in the political life of the world. 

We believe in its justice, its equity, 


MAKING THE NEXT WORLD SAFE 183 

its wisdom, its freedom which allows 
the people to express and to grow and 
unfold. 

Why then shouldn’t democracy in the 
religious life of the world be equally as 
beneficial as in its political life? 

Why haven’t the religions of the world 
built a heavenly democracy where all man¬ 
kind may be equal, free and become gods, 
as the mythology of ancient days says men 
were then, 

Instead of the heavenly autocracy which 
they have built and given to man with all 
its class privilege and autocratic God? 

Why has every religion in the past been 
an autocracy rather than a democracy ? 

Simply because all religions, without 
any exception, have been man-made, not 
God-made as they have claimed. 

Just as the man-made autocracies have 


184 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


claimed divine authority for their exist¬ 
ence. 

So have the man-made religions with 
their autocratic God, creed and dogma, 
made the same claim for their existence, 
and made it for the same reason, viz.: 

That they might the more easily im¬ 
pose it upon ignorant and undeveloped 
man. 

And the masses have shown their in¬ 
ability to either think or act for themselves 
by swallowing all these claims without 
even making a wry face about it. 

This acceptance of the claims of both 
the political and religious autocratic 
worlds by the masses has not been an 
accident. 

It has been only the natural result of 
the law man has made for himself uncon¬ 
sciously, for the masses have ever been 


MAKING THE NEXT WORLD SAFE 185 


autocratic and plutocratic in their con¬ 
sciousness. 

Always and ever has man endowed his 
ideal with qualities it did not possess, and 
at the same time has he condemned and- 
criticised in his fellow-man that which he 
called “bad.” 

In other words his autocratic conscious¬ 
ness had to see what he called both 
“good” and “bad” in man in order to re¬ 
main autocratic. 

His democratic consciousness only saw 
the “good” which laid back of his every 
expression, no matter how crude it was. 

It saw in those first expressions of 
Energy, which it had called “bad” in the 
past, the first steps on its new pathway 
to wisdom and understanding, and knew 
that in the last analysis “All men were 
born free and equal.” 


186 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


In his ignorance and undevelopment 
man has continued to allow the few to do 
his thinking even to this day. 

The result has been that having failed 
to use his thinking faculties they have con¬ 
tinued to remain undeveloped to any ap¬ 
preciable extent along religious lines and 
only recently have they shown any signs 
of awakening along political lines. 

Autocratic man therefore created an 
ideal—which he called God—in his own 
autocratic and plutocratic image and like¬ 
ness. 

God did not create man but man created 
God. 

Man then placed this autocratic and 
plutocratic ideal in an isolated corner of 
space called heaven; surrounded it with all 
the glory and dazzling splendor and riches 
of Oriental wealth and imagination, 


MAKING THE NEXT WORLD SAFE 187 


Then made this ideal an idol, worship¬ 
ing it as a God, the same as he wor¬ 
shiped his early ruler no matter by what 
name the latter might be called. 

Autocratic man limited the participants 
of his heaven to the favored few, the privi¬ 
leged classes, who watched the agonies of 
the heretics as they were being done to a 
nice brown in the basting ovens of his 
Satanic majesty, 

Just the same as autocratic man and his 
privileged classes watched the agonies of 
his exploited slaves here on earth. 

Man, the religious autocrat, had to 
have an autocrat for his Devil as well as 
for his God. 

According to all religions heaven, that 
is the next world by whatever name it may 
be called, is a much better place in which 
to live than is earth. 


188 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


All of autocratic man’s religions, like 
his political institutions, depend upon 
form. 

When there is any thing which he calls 
“bad,” he attempts to correct it by re¬ 
forming the form; that is by making new 
laws, rules, regulations, etc. 

Why then should not the form of 
heaven’s government be an improvement 
on that of earth’s? 

With heaven under the control of an 
autocratic God can its government be any 
better than earth’s? 

Suppose we should accept as true the 
biblical history and its interpretations by 
the religions which accept it as the last and 
final authority, 

Is God the autocrat any improvement 
over man the autocrat? 

We throw up our hands and roll our 


MAKING THE NEXT WORLD SAFE 189 


eyes in holy horror over the atrocities of 
the Germans under the Kaiser and the 
Turks under the Sultan, committed dur¬ 
ing the great world war by these two sym¬ 
bols of man the autocrat, 

But read the bible; read the sacred 
books of any religion and learn of the hor¬ 
rors committed by God the autocrat as 
related therein. 

The bible, for instance, tells us how God 
led the Jews into slavery in Egypt, then 
tortured the Egyptians for a while and 
finally murdered their first born before he, 
God, would “soften” the Egyptians hearts 
sufficiently so they would free the Jews. 

Then it goes on to tell how after the 
Egyptians had set the Jews free that God 
“hardened” their hearts and sent them 
after the Jews. 

That at the Red Sea God caused the 


160 SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 

waters to divide so the Jews could pass 
over safely and then caused the waters to 
come together again and drown all the 
Egyptians who were following them. 

Wholesale murder seems to have been 
that autocratic God’s chief delight. 

Then God murdered the people of the 
land of Canaan, desecrated their homes 
and destroyed their cities in order to give 
their land to the Jews. 

All this was done notwithstanding the 
fact that there was plenty of vacant land 
in the world which God might just as well 
have given to the Jews without all this 
murder and destruction. 

Afterwards God ravished the land and 
destroyed the cities of the Jews and 
caused them to be carried away into cap¬ 
tivity to that wickedest of cities, Babylon, 
so we are told, in order to reform them. 


MAKING THE NEXT WORLD SAFE 191 


We are told too how God fed the early 
Christians to the wild beasts in the Roman 
arenas and how the “pagans” of that day 
enjoyed the sport. 

How he sent the Christian armies out 
to “convert” the pagans or else murder 
them. (It seemed to matter little which 
occurred.) 

Is it any wonder that the God of the 
Kaiser did the same to the Belgians and 
people of Northern France, or that the 
God of the Turks was equally as attentive 
to the Armenians? 

We laughed when the Kaiser said, “I 
und Gott,” and “Gott mit us,” but 

Haven’t our autocratic religious and 
political rulers always said the same 
thing? 

Which is the greatest monster? 

Man the autocrat, as typified by the 


192 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


Kaiser, Sultan and similar rulers, or God 
the autocrat as interpreted to man in the 
past and present by all religionists? 

Let each one answer the question hon¬ 
estly to himself after studying and analyz¬ 
ing the history of both. 

When this is done there can be only 
one conclusion and that is that man in his 
ignorance and lack of understanding has 
made his God an autocrat the same as he 
has made his King or Emperor an auto¬ 
crat. 

We must conclude also that man makes 
his own religious life the same as he makes 
his own political life. 

When we examine the evidence before 
us with a calm, dispassionate and unpre¬ 
judiced mind free from all bigotry, 

We conclude that autocracy is no better 
for heaven than it has been for earth. 


MAKING THE NEXT WORLD SAFE 193 

And that democracy, being an improve¬ 
ment over autocracy here on earth, ought 
to be an improvement over it in the next 
world. 

What then is our first step to “Make 
the Next World Safe for Democracy ?” 

See where the idea of God the autocrat 
originated. 

Know that all religions and their Gods 
are man-made. 

Take the history of the Christian reli¬ 
gion as an illustration, for it is similar to 
that of all other religions, except as to 
minor details, in its origin. 

It is founded on certain biblical state¬ 
ments attributed to Moses and Jesus. 

Moses had been brought up by the 
daughter of Pharaoh at the latter’s Court 
and was by education and training an 
autocrat. 


194 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


In leading the Jews out of the physical 
bondage of a political autocrat he took 
them into the mental and soul bondage 
of a religious autocratic God in which the 
orthodox Jews of that race have remained 
to this day. 

Jesus was a democrat and taught the 
democracy or oneness of all life. 

He brought a new interpretation and 
a deeper understanding of the old reli¬ 
gions, just as is the Sears Philosophy 
doing to-day. 

He taught men that forms were only 
accessories; that it was the conscious¬ 
ness back of all forms which was the 
reality. 

The religion taught by Jesus is not the 
Christianity of to-day. 

For three hundred years his followers 
taught their understanding of his interpre- 


MAKING THE NEXT WORLD SAFE 195 

tation in their own individual way and 
organized many different Churches. 

During this period of time they grad¬ 
ually lost the consciousness Jesus had 
taught them to develop. 

They lost this consciousness in their 
attempts to hold strictly to the forms and 
ceremonies which had been handed down 
to them. 

In 325 a.d. the Niocine Convention was 
held and delegates from the Christian 
Churches were in attendance. 

After seven years of conferring the 
Christian Church as it is known to-day 
was organized with Constantine, the au¬ 
tocratic Roman Emperor, as its god¬ 
father. 

This organization took over the forms, 
ceremonies and authority Jesus had given 
to his disciples but it failed to get the 


196 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


consciousness Jesus had taught his origi¬ 
nal disciples how to develop. 

This organization was like a man who 
could repeat the contents of one of my 
books word for word from beginning to 
end, but he did not know nor understand 
one single principle taught in it . 

He had all the form and methods 
taught therein but failed to absorb any 
of the consciousness it taught. 

Heretofore it has always been through 
some autocrat that the world has received 
its political, religious and so-called spirit¬ 
ual teaching. 

When any religious democrat, like the 
man Jesus, has attempted to teach a larger 
interpretation and a deeper understand¬ 
ing of religion he has invariably been cru¬ 
cified, nailed to the cross metaphorically, 
his teaching discredited by the “powers 


MAKING THE NEXT WORLD SAFE 197 

that be,” the autocracy, or else captured 
and then promulgated by autocracy as in 
the case of Christianity. 

It was a knowledge of this truth that 
caused the man Jesus to say: “Beware of 
false prophets, which come to you in 
sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are 
ravening wolves.” 

This religious autocrat has always cre¬ 
ated a God of form, with angels, masters, 
higher intelligences, etc., for man to wor¬ 
ship and obejL 

This God with his heavenly nobility 
was to rule the next world the same as the 
King and his nobility did here. 

When we see the truth of this, our next 
step to take in order to “Make the next 
world safe for democracy,” is to 

Begin to reform ourselves . 

We should clean out from our con- 


198 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


sciousness all the old, ignorant, destructive 
race thoughts, ideas, conceptions, images, 
etc., of an autocratic God the same as we 
have been doing with autocratic Kings, 
Emperors, Czars, Kaisers, etc. 

Did you read in the news dispatches the 
other day where the head of the greatest 
political democracy in the world called on 
the ruler of the greatest religious autoc¬ 
racy in existence to-day? 

In referring to this incident we do not 
wish it understood that we are condemn¬ 
ing the act, neither are we approving it; 
we are simply repeating the statement of, 
fact. 

The same news dispatch was printed 
under the heading of “Pope blesses Wil¬ 
son and America’s cause.” 

Do you think it would be possible for 
the ruler of the world’s greatest religious 


MAKING THE NEXT WORLD SAFE 199 


autocracy to really bless the world’s 
greatest political democracy and its repre¬ 
sentative? 

Wouldn’t such “blessing” be only 
words, a mere matter of form, rather than 
words with the consciousness of a real 
blessing back of them? 

How do we reform ourselves? 

By doing our work of reformation upon 
ourselves instead of upon the “other fel¬ 
low,” as has been our custom in the past. 

By living our ideals instead of worship¬ 
ing them as idols as all autocratic reli¬ 
gions have taught man to do. 

By making our ideals real—a part of 
us, instead of building them entirely out¬ 
side of ourselves as all autocratic religions 
have taught man to do. 

Just as the development of the human 
brain and intellect has enabled man to 


200 


SEARS PHILOSOPHY LESSONS 


evolve from the brute or animal state of 
primitive man to that of the intellectual 
giant and highly civilized human being of 
to-day, 

So will the development of man’s finer, 
his psychological or soul faculties, enable 
him to reach a still greater and higher 
estate, that of the super-man or God-man, 
where he is the master of all conditions 
of life both here and hereafter. 

This is what the Sears Philosophy 
teaches mankind. 

Then and only then vail either this 
world or the next be really safe for 
democracy. 


Sears Philosophy 

as taught in 

“The Books Without An If. 

makes life livable here and hereafter 


1 Centre Publishing Co., 

108 & 110 W. 34th St., New York 

j Please send me the following books by F. W. Sears , M.P. 

' for which I enclose $ _ in payment. 

Sears Philosophy—What it Teaches.$ .25 

Concentration— 

Its Mentology and Psychology, Paper.50 

“ “ « “ Cloth.75 

Concentration and Will-Power 

(Correspondence Course, 12 Lessons).10.00 

How to Attract Success.Cloth. 1.80 

Sears Psychology Lessons, Vol. I., ** 1-85 

«« « «« “ II., “ 1.35 

« Philosophy « « III., “ 1.35 

How to Give Treatments. ** 1-35 

How to Conquer Fear, Library Ed.,.. “ 1-00 

« «» « “ Pocket “ .. “ .75 

«< «« «« «« «« «* . .Paper.50 

Everyday Experiences.Cloth.50 

The Mysteries of Sleep. “ . 

Was Jesus God or Man?.Paper.30 

The Three Monkeys. “ 25 

The Unlimited Supply. “ . 

Am I to Blame?. ** . 

Who Made God ?. “ . 

What is Truth?. ‘‘ . 

How We Create Ourselves. ** . 

The Law of Cause and Effect. “ . 

The Resurrection of the Body. ** . 

The Risen Self. “ . 

The Secret of Healing. . 

The Unpardonable Sin. “ . 


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